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A    WORLD-PlLGRlMAGE 


BY 


JOHN    HENRY   BARROWS 


EDITED    BY 

MARY   ELEANOR   BARROWS 


Much  have  I  travelled  in  the  realms  of  gold, 
And  many  goodly  states  and  kingdoms  seen ; 
Round  many  Eastern  islands  have  I  been. 

Keats. 


SECOND    EDITION 


CHICAGO 

A.   C   McCLURG   AND    COMPANY 

1898 


Copyright 

By  A.  C.  McClurg  and  Co. 

a.  d.  1897 


PREFACE 


In  these  latter  days  the  world  is  beginning  to 
recognize  its  organic  unity ;  to  feel  the  current  of 
humanity,  stronger  than  patriotism  and  broader  than 
the  boundaries  of  a  great  nation,  that  flows  beneath 
all  peoples.  This  knowledge  one  who  has  seen  the 
constellations  of  two  hemispheres  and  the  palms  of 
India  as  well  as  North  American  pines,  is  apt  to 
possess  in  larger  measure  than  those  who  have  never 
been  wayfarers  in  strange  places. 

These  observations  of  art  and  life  in  other  coun- 
tries, which  my  father  wrote  in  letters  to  the  "  Chicago 
Record "  and  to  "  The  Interior,"  possess  the  value 
of  having  been  written  at  the  time  of  the  impres- 
sions, before  intermediating  experiences  dulled  them, 
and,  in  spite  of  the  hasty  writing  this  necessitated, 
are  published  now  in  book  form,  in  the  hope  of 
strengthening  the  growing  belief  that  this  earth,  spin- 
ning in  space,  is  encompassed  by  an  atmosphere  of 
faith,  hope,  and  love,  which  men  and  women  of  all 
lands  breathe  as  truly  and  necessarily  as  the  air 
supporting  physical  life. 

M.  E.  B. 

The  Seven  Pines, 
Island  of  Mackinac,  Michigan, 
September  16,  1S97. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Ox  the  Sea " 

II.     TWO   GoTTINGEN   WALKS 24 

III.  First  Impressions  of  German  Life    ...  36 

IV.  Paris 49 

V.    Other  Scenes  in  Paris 60 

VI.    A  Little  Tour  in  France 75 

VII.    The  German  University 84 

VIII.    A  Day  in  Cassel  and  the  Fourth  of  July  97 

IX.    In  the  Hartz  Mountains no 

X.    In  Classic  Germany  —  Eisenach    ....  125 
XI.    In  Classic  Germany  —  "Weimar,  Jena,  Leip- 

sic,  Dresden,  Wittenberg 132 

XII.    Germany's  Capitat 148 

XI I I.  Farewell  to  Germany 156 

XIV.  Old  England 174 

XV.    Lowell's  Cathedral 190 

XVI.    Under  Italian  Skies  — Turin,  Milan,  Flor- 
ence      198 

XVII.    Rome  and  Naples 210 

XVIII.    Athens 225 


A   WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ON    THE    SEA. 

\\  THEN  six  days  of  an  Atlantic  voyage  have  already 
*  *  passed,  one  usually  begins  to  snuff  the  land  and  to 
realize  that  the  great  and  wide  sea  has,  after  all,  become 
only  a  ferry.  Through  the  wonders  of  modern  navigation, 
the  perils  which  the  old  vikings  braved,  and  Columbus  set 
his  strong  heart  to  face,  and  the  voyagers  of  the  "  Mayflower" 
heroically  withstood  and  overcame,  have  been  reduced  to 
small  numbers  and  proportions,  and  the  crossing  of  the 
Atlantic  is  now  a  tired  man's  luxury,  and  the  sick  man's 
best  sanitary  device.  We  have  had  six  days  of  ideal  ocean 
weather  in  one  of  the  best  of  steamships,  and  to-morrow 
there  is  the  prospect  of  seeing  land. 

In  all  probability,  forty-nine  fiftieths  of  my  readers  have 
never  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  some  brief  account  of 
perhaps  the  greatest  wonder  of  the  modern  world  may  be 
of  interest  to  them,  while  the  other  fiftieth  will  not  be  averse 
to  hearing  the  wonder  retold.  How  I  have  wished  that 
Leif  Ericson,  Sebastian  Cabot,  and  Governor  Bradford  could 
be  with  us  in  this  richly  decorated  saloon  —  where  two 
hundred  and  fifty  persons  can  sit  down  to  a  ten-course  din- 
ner—  and  be  told  that  this  is  a  part  of  a  steam-driven  ves- 
sel, of  twelve  thousand  five  hundred  horse-power,  which,  at 
the  speed  of  nineteen  knots  an  hour,  is  pursuing  an  almost 
straight  course  from  the  New  World  to  the  Old  !  A  steel- 
ribbed  and  steel-clad  ship,  carrying  millions  of  pounds  of 


12  A    U'ORLD-riLGKIMAGE. 

freight,  churning  the  angry  ocean  into  foam  and  battling  suc- 
cessfully with  the  fiercest  of  unloosed  tempests,  and  furnish- 
ing its  passengers  with  comforts  which  no  middle-age  prince 
or  king  ever  enjoyed,  is  to  me  a  far  greater  marvel  than  any 
one  of  the  seven  wonders  which  were  the  boast  of  the 
classic  world.  One  striking  difference  between  the  former 
and  the  present  marvels  of  human  achievement  is  this,  that 
the  recent  wonders  belong  to  the  realm  of  life  and  motion. 
Contrast  the  pyramids  of  Egypt  with  the  modern  railroad  ; 
the  hanging  gardens  of  Babylon  with  the  telegraph ;  the 
deaf  and  speechless  statue  of  Jupiter  Olympus  with  the 
telephone  ;  the  mausoleum  of  Artemisia  with  the  steamship ; 
the  Colossus  of  Rhodes  with  the  Maxim  rapid-firing  gun ; 
the  Temple  of  Diana  with  the  all-revealing  photographic 
Roentgen  ray  ;  and  even  the  Pharos  of  Alexandria,  sending 
light  over  a  few  leagues  of  sea,  with  the  metropolitan  news- 
paper gathering  light  from  all  the  continents  and  sending  it 
out  into  hundreds  of  thousands  of  homes. 

The  "  Havel,"  named,  like  every  North  German  Lloyd 
express  steamer  between  Bremen  and  New  York,  from  one 
of  the  rivers  of  the  Fatherland,  is  twin  ship  to  the  "  Spree," 
and  was  built  in  1890.  It  is  the  most  comfortable  and  satis- 
factory boat  on  which  I  have  ever  crossed  the  Atlantic,  scru- 
pulously clean,  beautiful  in  its  decoration,  with  a  promenade 
deck  almost  entirely  covered  and  thus  protecting  us  from 
many  annoyances.  One  catches  something  of  the  spirit  of 
Germany,  as  in  the  companion-way  he  looks  at  the  tiled 
decorations  representing  villages,  castles,  and  churches  to  be 
seen  along  the  river  Havel,  or  notes  the  imitations  of 
ancient  tapestries  which  deck  the  splendid  saloon. 

It  is  pleasant  to  be  summoned  to  one's  meals,  not  by  a 
barbarous  gong,  but  by  a  civilized  and  inspiring  bugle. 
Only  musicians  are  employed  as  second-cabin  stewards, 
and  an  excellent  band  plays  on  deck  every  morning  at 
eleven,  so  that  even  seasick  passengers  are  reheartened ; 
while  the  concert  programme,  furnished  by  the  orchestra  at 
every  dinner,  lends  a  new  charm  to  that  chief  event  of  the  day. 


RBC 
McU 


ON  THE  SEA.  1 3 

A  potpourri  of  American  national  airs  causes  even  strangers 
to  look  up  at  each  other  and  smile  ;  and  who  of  us  will  ever 
forget  the  sweet,  deep  pleasure  of  being  wakened  on  Sun- 
day morning  by  the  playing  of  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee  "  ? 
No  air  rouses  so  many  people  on  shipboard  as  "  America," 
for  it  is  the  national  tune  of  Great  Britain  and  Germany  as 
well  as  of  the  United  States.  At  the  last  celebration  of  the 
Kaiser's  birthday  in  Gottingen,  while  the  Germans  were 
singing  to  these  notes  the  praise  of  Germany,  a  group  of 
English  girls  poured  out  their  patriotism  in  "  God  save  our 
gracious  Queen,"  and  a  pair  of  American  girls  shouted 
songfully,  "  My  country,  't  is  of  thee."  Is  not  this  a 
prophecy  of  the  time  when  the  Christian  Teutonic  races 
shall  be  still  further  unified? 

Germany  is  fast  becoming  a  great  naval  power  as  well  as 
a  formidable  colonizing  nation.  The  trident  of  Neptune, 
as  Napoleon  said,  is  the  sceptre  of  the  world.  Oceans  no 
longer  separate,  but.  with  the  facilities  of  nineteenth-century 
navigation,  they  connect,  distant  peoples.  The  ninety-seven 
steerage  passengers  on  board  the  "  Havel "  probably  could  not 
afford  to  take  a  four-thousand-mile  land  journey.  The  water 
makes  Australia  and  Cape  Colony  contiguous  to  Kent  and 
Lancashire.  A  few  months  ago  it  seemed  among  the  possi- 
bilities that  English  and  German  fleets  might  be  facing  each 
other  in  battle  ;  but  birds  of  calm  are  now  brooding  over  all 
great  Neptune's  waves. 

The  Germans  certainly  make  excellent  purveyors  to 
American  voyagers,  and  I  owe  to  them  the  most  restful  of 
all  my  seven  trips  across  the  Atlantic.  This  ship  does  its 
work  without  fuss,  and  one  has  a  feeling  of  security.  The 
German  officers  are  polite  and  free  from  irritability.  Captain 
Theodore  Jiingst,  who  has  made  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  ocean  round  trips  as  captain  of  a  vessel,  is  one  of  the 
masters  of  the  sea  who  always  remains  a  gentleman.  It  is 
a  pleasure  to  see  his  round  and  smiling  face.  Sea  life 
appears  to  agree  with  the  German  officers.  Their  faces 
and  bodies  expand  as  they  rise  in  rank. 


14  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Out  of  regard  for  my  former  companions  in  travel,  I  dare 
not  call  this  the  most  delightful  of  ocean  trips.  There  has 
been  a  cheerful  and  restful  monotony  about  it,  however, 
very  satisfying  to  us  all.  The  incidents  of  a  sea  voyage 
are  usually  few.  The  whale  is  getting  to  be  as  rare  as  the 
buffalo.  Porpoises  do  frisk  now  and  then  along  the  side  of 
the  ship.  Sea  gulls  and  other  birds  make  us  wonder  if 
aerial  navigation  will  ever  be  perfected  by  man.  Some- 
times an  ocean  liner  or  other  ship  heaves  in  sight.  The 
sky  has  usually  been  bright,  the  air  inspiriting  and,  on  some 
days,  strangely  warm.  Nothing  has  surprised  me  more  than 
to  find  that,  at  the  end  of  the  winter,  we  have  had  less  cold 
and  discomfort  than  I  have  found  in  June  and  September. 

But  old  Ocean  himself,  to  those  fortunate  enough  to 
enjoy  him,  is  the  main  fact  present  to  one's  consciousness. 
We  have  had  Lowell's  "gray  vague  of  unsympathizing  sea" 
now  and  then,  but  have  oftener  been  gladdened  by  the  old 
Greek  poet's  "  innumerable  laughter  "  of  the  ocean,  as  we 
have  seen  the  sun  "  breaking  on  the  sea's  blue  shield  his 
thousand  golden  lances."  The  full  moon  has  thrown  her 
"  lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea  "  evening  after  evening,  and 
roused  the  latent  sentimentality  which  is,  after  all,  the  best 
part  of  life.  Phosphorescent  sparks  and  flames  have  given 
a  weird  enchantment  to  the  night-time,  and  the  usual  deck 
games  have  afforded  some  interest  to  the  hours  of  the  day. 

I  once  made  a  collection  of  epithets  applied  by  the  poets 
to  the  sea,  beginning  with  old  Homer's  "  wine-colored  " 
deep,  not  omitting  the  strong  adjectives  of  the  Hebrew 
singers  and  the  picturesque  epithets  of  some  of  the  Greek 
tragedians.  Such  words  as  " unharvested,"  "fruitful," 
"immeasurable,"  "eternal,"  "hungry,"  "unsympathizing," 
"silver,"  "summer,"  "weary,"  "great  and  wide,"  "laugh- 
ing," "dismal,"  "mysterious,"  and  a  score  of  others  help 
us  to  look  at  one  of  the  greatest  facts  and  forces  in  the  life 
of  this  marvellous  organism,  the  earth,  with  ether  and  wiser 
eyes  than  our  own.  William  Watson's  recent  "  Hymn  to 
the  Sea "  is  perhaps  the  high-water  mark    of   his  genius. 


ON  THE   SEA.  1 5 

What  a  wealth  of  musical  words  this  rhythmic  Croesus 
flings  with  lavish  hand  over  the  smiling  and  frowning  vast- 
ness  and  variety  of  ocean  ! 

There  is  one  fact-  about  the  deep  which  every  sailor 
knows,  and  every  boy  who  puts  out  in  a  dory  from  Glouces- 
ter or  Lynn,  and  that  is  that  the  sea  is  inconstant  in  his 
moods.  With  the  stars  shining  and  the  variable  moon  still 
beaming,  our  ship  slid  into  a  heaving  and  angry  world  of 
billows  that  gave  us  a  night  of  it.  In  twenty-five  thousand 
miles  of  ocean  travel  I  never  knew  a  steamer  suffer  so  much 
from  delirium  tremens.  The  children  standing  on  their 
heads  and  then  on  their  feet  while  trying  to  repose  in  bed, 
every  loose  thing  in  every  state-room  jumping  to  the  floor 
and  then  skating  merrily  from  berth  to  doorway,  what 
seemed  like  a  hundred  cannon-balls  or  mighty  chunks  of 
ice  rolling  and  sliding  in  neighboring  kitchens  and  store- 
rooms, the  din  and  crash  of  falling  pans  and  dishes,  the 
various  untheological  remarks  of  excited  stewards  and  pas- 
sengers in  the  corridors,  and  the  hysterical  laughter  which 
proceeded  from  rooms  where  benevolent  voyagers  were 
striving  to  lash  rebellious  trunks  with  rope  and  towel, — 
such  were  a  few  of  the  pleasant  and  picturesque  features  of 
the  night  when  the  sea  pounded  the  "  Havel,"  but  succeeded 
in  diminishing  by  only  a  few  miles  the  average  run  of  the 
sturdy  vessel. 

The  point  reached  every  midday  is  marked  on  the  chart 
near  the  smoking-room  by  a  German  flag.  An  American 
flag  is  planted  in  New  York  and  the  union  jack  in  South- 
ampton, and  it  has  been  pleasant  in  the  last  week  to  see 
the  black,  red  and  white  flags  of  Germany  stretching,  in 
ever-lengthening  line,  across  the  Atlantic.  On  the  afternoon 
of  March  third  Bishop's  Light  appeared  off  the  Scilly  Isl- 
ands, and  we  felt  that  our  course  was  about  finished.  But 
the  captain,  now  that  land  was  in  sight  and  the  passengers 
free  from  care,  took  to  the  bridge,  and  was  seen  no  more  in 
the  dining-saloon. 

The  day  following  the  night  of  unrest  gave  us  the  sight 


1 6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

of  as  beautiful  and  sublime  a  sea  as  one  often  beholds. 
With  the  sun  brightly  shining  on  pearly  crests  and  emerald 
crags,  with  the  glories  of  Switzerland  reproduced  on  the 
moving  face  of  the  deep,  enhanced  by  changing  lights  and 
shadows,  every  spectator  with  his  sea-legs  on  felt  himself  an 
incipient  poet.  There  are  forms  of  beauty  and  forces  of 
tremendous  power  which  bring  out  on  deck  even  the  beer- 
soaked  and  ham-filled  players  from  the  ship's  smoking-room. 
The  approach  of  land  ever  appears  to  be  the  signal  and  oc- 
casion of  more  generous  drinking,  though  I  must  praise  my 
fellow-passengers  for  their  general  and  unusual  moderation. 
The  American  and  English  gentlemen  who  crowd  the  sum- 
mer steamers  evidently  find  on  board  an  abundance  of 
liquids  more  potent  than  the  vintages  of  the  Rhineland  and 
the  products  of  the  Bavarian  breweries. 

One  delightful  thing  about  the  Germans  is  the  beautiful 
habit  of  taking  with  them  always  their  national  sentimental- 
ism.  As  a  people  they  must  have  their  music  and  their 
shows.  But  on  this  voyage  they  have  been  careful,  in 
music  and  everything  else,  not  to  display  any  offensive 
patriotism.  On  the  evening  before  reaching  Southampton 
we  had  the  "  captain's  dinner."  The  children  were  ex- 
cited by  what  they  called  the  Christmas  trees  adorning 
the  tables.  These  were  cones  of  fancy  cakes  and  confec- 
tionery decorated  with  German  and  American  flags  and 
the  flags  of  Bremen  and  of  the  German  Lloyd  line.  One 
cone  was  surmounted  by  the  "  Germania  "  and  the  other  by 
the  Bartholdi  statue.  After  'the  pudding  had  been  served, 
the  lights  were  suddenly  extinguished  and,  while  the  orches- 
tra played  "  America,"  the  doors  of  the  saloon  opened  and 
the  twelve  stewards  filed  in  and  marched  twice  around  the 
tables,  carrying  illuminated  blocks  of  ice  and  large  Japanese 
lanterns  shaped  like  crowns,  globes,  and  castles,  and  the 
happy  diners  cheered  the  picturesque  and  beautiful  proces- 
sion. Such  is  the  way  the  captain  and  the  chief  steward 
had  of  saying,  "  This  is  our  last  night  together ;  let  us  all 
be  friends." 


ON  THE  SEA.  1 7 

On  the  evening  of  March  third  our  ship  talked  with  an- 
other ship  at  sea  by  means  of  red  and  white  Roman  candles, 
and  each  learned  that  her  neighbor  belonged  to  the  same 
line.  At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  "  Havel  "  lay  along 
her  new  docks  at  Southampton,  and  at  seven  o'clock  twenty 
of  our  passengers  had  left  us.  In  coming  to  this  port  we  had 
crossed  the  waters  over  which  the  great  British  navigators 
had  sailed  to  the  exploration  and  conquest  of  the  globe. 
We  had  seen  in  the  afternoon  the  light-house  and  station  at 
Lizard  Point,  from  which  our  arrival  was  announced  on 
both  sides  of  the  sea ;  Eddystone,  most  famous  of  all  light- 
houses ;  far  off  from  shore  we  had  passed  Plymouth,  and 
forsaking  the  Cornish  and  Devonshire  coasts  had  reached 
The  Needles,  by  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  steaming  up  Severn 
Water  had  come  to  the  harbor  from  which  Richard  Cceur 
de  Lion  had  sailed  on  his  crusade,  and  Henry  V.  had  set 
forth  for  France  and  the  "  sounding  bows  of  Agincourt." 

Eager  to  reach  the  mouth  of  the  Weser,  the  "  Havel  "  sailed 
down  the  Severn  stream  as  the  sun,  brightening  and  coloring 
vast  heaps  of  clouds,  rose  over  the  English  coast  on  our  left. 
Strangely  beautiful  lights  cast  enchantment  over  land  and 
water.  Many  hundreds  of  sea-gulls,  their  white  wings  given 
a  golden  splendor  in  the  morning  light,  sailed  after  us. 
On  the  starboard  the  Isle  of  Wight  soon  appeared,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  the  towers  of  Osborne,  with  green  fields  slop- 
ing to  the  shores,  and  then  Ryde,  and  later  Portsmouth  on 
our  left,  the  fortifications  in  the  channel  and  other  tokens 
of  England's  military  and  naval  strength ;  and  then  on 
through  the  day  we  passed  by  Brighton  and  Beachy  Head, 
sometimes  seeing  more  than  thirty  ships  at  once.  We 
were  crossing  the  track  of  William  the  Conqueror.  Over 
there  was  Hastings.  Yonder  were  the  white  cliffs  of  Dover 
—  the  silver  parapets  of  England.  A  little  farther  on  is 
Deal,  where  Caesar  landed.  We  have  crossed  the  path  of 
the  mighty  Julius,  "  the  greatest  man  that  ever  lived  in  the 
tide  of  time."  But  ancient  history  does  not  make  us  par- 
ticularly happy  to-day. 


1 8  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Our  minds  are  on  the  affairs  of  the  present.  We  have 
touched  the  world  again,  —  the  world  of  international  dis- 
putes and  rivalries.  Our  little  world  on  the  steamer  had 
no  quarrels.  To  be  sure,  the  orchestra  played  "  Marching 
through  Georgia  "  and  "  Dixie,"  but  these  are  the  vanish- 
ing memorials  of  a  buried  contest.  And  some  wise  genius 
will  yet  write  other  words  for  "  Marching  through  Georgia," 
or  else  the  good  sense  and  good  feeling  of  America  will  rele- 
gate that  stirring  lyric  to  oblivion.  At  Southampton  the 
"  New  York  Herald"  and  the  London  dailies  came  aboard, 
and  we  read,  not  only  of  the  arbitration  meeting  in  London, 
but  also  of  the  enormous  expenditures  England  proposes  for 
Gibraltar,  and  of  the  debate  in  the  American  Congress  over 
according  belligerent  rights  to  Cuban  insurgents  and  of 
Spain's  hot  indignation. 

America  occupied  more  space  than  formerly  in  a  London 
journal,  but  the  "  Daily  News,"  which  we  read,  seemed  un- 
gracious in  nearly  every  reference  to  us,  and  it  certainly  was 
in  some  things  grossly  inaccurate.  I  was  not  persuaded, 
even  by  seeing  the  statement  in  print,  that  the  American 
press  was  practically  unanimous  in  condemning  the  pro- 
posed action  of  Congress.  I  have  heard  for  the  last  few 
months  that  England  was  boiling  over  with  love  to  America. 
I  know  that  many  noble  Englishmen  love  our  Republic, 
and  I  believe  that  America  is  dear  to  the  English  common 
people  generally.  But  what  odd  ways  some  English  edi- 
tors and  diplomats  have  of  showing  their  affection  !  One 
thinks  of  the  couplet,  — 

"  Perhaps  she  did  right  in  concealing  her  love, 
But  why  did  she  kick  me  downstairs  ?  " 

One  is  also  reminded  that  in  "  The  House-boat  on  the 
Styx  "  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  says,  "  My  feeling  is  not  worth 
expressing,"  and  Thackeray  suggests  that  he  had  "  better 
send  it  by  freight."  British  affection  for  America  often 
comes  by  slow  carriage.  I  suppose  the  truth  is  that  the 
worst  offence  which  the  Englishman  gives  other  people  is 


ON  THE  SEA.  1 9 

his  unconscious  tone  of  superiority.  If  editors  and  dip- 
lomats in  London  would  reread  Mr.  Lowell's  essay  on  "  A 
Certain  Condescension  in  Foreigners,"  Anglo-American 
complications  might  be  less  frequent. 

The  trouble  with  all  of  us  is  that  we  become  too  familiar 
with  the  worst  sides  of  each  other.  It  would  be  unfair  to 
judge  England  by  the  five  Englishmen  who  boarded  our 
steamer  at  Southampton.  All  had  been  drinking  too 
heavily  and  wanted  to  drink  more.  Some  of  them  invited 
the  strangers  on  our  ship  to  a  bout.  One  of  them,  shortly 
after  calling  for  whiskey  and  soda,  fell  down  in  a  drunken 
fit  on  the  deck.  The  ship's  doctor  was  sent  for ;  but  this 
gentleman,  who  carries  his  degree  from  a  German  university 
written  in  duelling  scars  on  his  face,  glanced  contemptu- 
ously at  the  fallen  young  hero,  and  turned  away,  saying, 
"  He  '11  get  over  it."  International  courtesy  is  a  prelude 
to  international  peace.  And  courtesy,  while  it  can  come 
only  from  a  good  heart,  is  fostered  by  a  wide  acquaintance 
with  what  is  best  in  other  peoples.  Professor  James  Bryce, 
after  frequent  and  prolonged  visits  to  America,  writes  "  The 
American  Commonwealth."  William  T.  Stead  makes  a 
study  of  the  black  side  of  one  city,  and  writes  "  If  Christ 
came  to  Chicago." 

But  the  German  ocean  has  been  safely  crossed ;  we  have 
rounded  Holland,  and  Bremerhaven  is  reached  at  seven 
o'clock  this  morning.  This  entrance  to  the  Old  World  is 
not  so  picturesque  as  many  another  which  we  might  have 
taken.  The  approach  to  England  at  Southampton  is  far 
more  beautiful ;  the  approach  to  Scotland  at  Glasgow  is 
more  impressive.  But  nothing  could  exceed  the  joy  of 
some  of  our  fellow-passengers  as  the  "  Havel "  dropped 
her  anchor  into  the  swift  current  of  the  Weser  and  two 
tenders  drew  alongside  of  us  to  take  the  passengers,  mail, 
and  luggage  to  the  shore.  One  of  these  passengers  had 
sailed  from  Bremerhaven  forty-one  years  before.  He  was 
then  too  poor,  he  told  me,  to  take  passage  in  the  side- 
wheel  steamer,  which  would  have  carried  him  across  the 


20  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Atlantic  in  three  weeks.  Before  his  sailing  vessel  had 
reached  Philadelphia,  the  steamer  had  gone  over  and  re- 
turned. Now,  for  the  first  time,  he  saw  again  the  German 
coast.  What  struck  me  in  these  German  Americans  was 
their  intense,  I  will  not  say  excessive,  Americanism.  It 
reinforces  my  faith  and  hope  in  the  great  Republic  and  my 
love  for  her  institutions,  to  realize  what  a  strong  grip  Amer- 
ica has  gained  on  the  hearts  of  these  sturdy,  honest,  and 
big-brained  Germans,  who  have  become  truly  incorporated 
into  our  national  life.  Some  of  them  said  to  me  that  they 
could  never  again  feel  quite  at  home  in  the  Fatherland.  I 
think  that  they  have  a  keener  appreciation  of  the  distinctive 
excellence  and  charm  of  our  free  American  life  than  many 
of  us  to  the  manor  born. 

One  of  the  last  duties  of  the  passenger  who  leaves  his 
ship  is  to  make  a  just  and  equitable  distribution  of  fees 
among  the  stewards  who  have  served  him.  On  a  German 
boat  this  duty  is  also  a  pleasure,  for  the  service  rendered 
has  been  cheerful,  and  the  hungry  expectation  of  large  fees 
has  not  been  apparent.  German  servants,  both  on  land 
and  sea,  have  not  yet  been  brought  to  that  high  standard  of 
demand  which  is  sometimes  so  grievous  to  the  American 
housekeeper. 

As  the  tender  leaves  the  "Havel,"  Captain  Jiingst  waves 
his  farewells  from  the  promenade  deck,  the  band  plays  a  re- 
sounding and  cheerful  air,  the  passengers  respond  with  voice 
and  hand,  and,  as  we  withdraw  from  the  iron  steamer  which 
has  been  our  home,  we  gain  the  most  vivid  impression  of 
its  strength  and  majesty.  We  shall  feel  a  greater  security, 
as  other  voyages  are  contemplated,  when  we  recall  how 
regal  and  stalwart  and  victorious  the  "  Havel "  appeared  to 
us  on  that  misty  morning.  Fear  not  the  ocean,  O  American 
friends  ;  it  is  more  perilous  to  cross  Broadway.  It  appears 
easier  to  tame  the  elements  on  the  boisterous  sea  than  to 
assure  a  man  a  safe  journey  from  his  city  home  to  his  place 
of  business  !  Silk  hats  and  fine  clothes  usually  blossom  out 
at  the  end  of  a  voyage,  and  passengers  sometimes  fail  of 


ON  THE  SEA.  21 

mutual  recognition.  This  could  hardly  be  said  of  us  at  the 
close  of  this  winter  passage.  Friendliness  increased  up  to 
the  moment  of  separation  and  farewell.  "Jetzt  sind  wir 
auf  deutschem  Boden  "  ("  Now  we  are  on  German  soil") 
was  the  frequent  and  glad  exclamation  of  one  of  my  com- 
panions. Bremerhaven,  the  port  of  Bremen,  about  thirty 
miles  from  that  famous  city,  is  almost  as  close  to  the  sea 
as  Venice,  and  the  quays  were  hugged  by  many  iron  steam- 
ers which  had  conquered  all  the  seas.  Some  of  them  had 
passed  through  the  Suez  Canal  and  found  the  shorter  way, 
to  the  Orient.  Some  of  these  prows  had  cut  "  the  long 
wash  of  Australasian  seas,"  or  had  sailed  into  the  ports 
of  China  and  Japan. 

The  custom-house  is  the  first  bugbear  in  landing  on  a 
foreign  shore.  As  I  intended  to  make  a  long  stay  in  Ger- 
many, I  had  brought  with  me  many  books,  a  type-writer, 
and  a  chafing-dish,  together  with  four  letter-files  filled  with 
sermons  and  lectures,  and  clothing  for  a  family  of  six.  I 
had  taken  the  precaution  of  securing  from  the  German 
Consul  in  Chicago  a  statement  regarding  myself,  my  pur- 
poses,  and  my  effects,  and,  armed  with  this  paper,  I  sta- 
tioned myself  behind  my  eight  hundred  pounds  of  luggage. 
The  hand-baggage  went  through  unscathed ;  the  trunks 
were  one  by  one  unlocked  and  explored  by  German  offi- 
cials. The  type-writer  and  chafing-dish  made  no  impres- 
sion on  the  Teutonic  mind ;  the  sermons  were  evidently 
considered  to  have  done  duty  already ;  the  books  were 
passed  without  remark.  But  a  few  pounds  of  delicious 
American  candy,  "  friendship's  offering "  to  our  girls  in 
Gottingen,  were  seized  upon,  weighed,  and  charged  with 
an  impost  of  two  marks  and  forty  pfennigs  !  This  was 
my  total  contribution  to  the  government  of  the  German 
Empire. 

The  large  and  comfortable  waiting-room  into  which  we 
were  ushered  at  Bremerhaven  held  us  for  more  than  an 
hour  before  the  train  was  ready  for  Bremen.  Most  of  the 
passengers  occupied   the  time  with  beer,  the  great  time- 


22  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

killer  on  the  Continent.  A  telegram  was  sent,  a  letter 
received,  and  I  felt  that  my  family  were  reunited.  The  spe- 
cial train  which  carried  us  to  Bremen  passed  through  a  flat 
and  fertile  region,  where  some  of  my  companions  saw  for 
the  first  time  the  true  Fatherland  of  the  English  as  well  as  of 
the  German  race.  From  these  shores  came  the  men,  the 
brave  and  hardy  warriors  and  sailors,  who  contributed  most 
to  the  making  of  England.  Reaching  Bremen,  we  discov- 
ered that  we  must  leave  our  luggage  in  the  hands  of  for- 
warding-agents  and  take  the  train  at  once  for  Hanover  and 
Gottingen.  We  were  to  fulfil  the  promise  of  the  telegram 
and  reach  our  destination  that  evening.  Filling  his  arms 
with  luncheon,  the  "  Generous  Provider "  drove  his  flock 
into  a  car,  and  we  were  soon  speeding  at  ten  German  miles 
an  hour  (which  are  equal  to  forty  English  miles)  southward 
toward  the  city  whence  England  imported  her  kings.  At 
"famous  Hanover  city"  we  changed  into  another  car,  and 
there  lost  sight  of  the  last  of  our  fellow-passengers  on  the 
"  Havel."  They  had  scattered  in  a  dozen  directions,  going 
to  Berlin,  Leipsic,  Prague,  Vienna,  Dresden,  Cologne,  Turin, 
Paris. 

The  longest  part  of  our  four  thousand  eight  hundred 
miles  of  travel  was  the  hour  and  a  half  between  Hanover 
and  Gottingen  !  We  were  in  a  Harmonica-zug,  a  train 
somewhat  like  a  vestibule-train,  with  a  corridor  running 
along  one  side  of  the  compartments,  where  each  passenger 
paid  one  mark  extra  for  his  seat.  Established  here,  we 
ordered  Seltzer  Wasser  to  quench  our  thirst  and  to  cool 
our  feverishness.  The  country  grew  rapidly  pretty  and  pic- 
turesque as  we  came  into  the  Hartz-mountain  region.  Our 
good  train  was  precisely  on  time,  — this  is  not  an  unwonted 
thing  in  Germany;  the  dreams  which  we  had  cherished 
since  last  October  were  realized,  and  with  interested  and 
joyfully  sympathetic  spectators  pushing  their  heads  out  of 
the  car-windows,  the  members  of  my  family  with  shouts  and 
kisses  rushed  into  each  other's  arms  !  From  Chicago  to 
Gottingen  we  have  come  from  the  rushing  and  exhausting 


ON  THE  SEA. 


23 


life  of  the  busiest  of  American  cities,  where  one  must  think 
on  the  run,  to  the  leisure  and  tranquillity  of  this  studious 
town,  where  no  one  appears  to  be  in  a  hurry,  where  the 
denominator  of  life  has  already  been  greatly  reduced  for 
us,  but  where  we  hope  to  continue  our  loving  and  constant 
acquaintance  with  the  old  life  in  America,  which,  after  all, 
makes  life  for  us  worth  living. 


CHAPTER   II. 

TWO    GOTTINGEN   WALKS. 

HAVE  already,  three  different  times,  peeped  into  the 
-*-  life  of  the  Fatherland,  but  now  for  the  first  time  I  live 
among  German  people,  sharing  their  daily  life,  eating  of 
their  abundant  food,  sleeping  under  their  mountainous 
feather  beds,  and  hearing  from  morning  till  night  the 
musical  bubble  and  sputter  of  their  strong,  queer,  ex- 
uberant speech.  The  ocean  that  was  so  kind  to  us  is 
already  an  ancient  memory. 

I  have  found  the  change  from  the  noisy  rush  of  life  in  a 
great  American  city  to  this  home  of  quietness  in  the  heart 
of  old  Germany  far  from  stupid,  and  really  of  deep  interest 
because  it  has  discovered  to  me  an  undreamed-of  relish  for 
rest  and  retirement.  It  happens  that  the  university  stu- 
dents are  now  enjoying  the  spring  vacation.  The  summer 
semester  does  not  begin  until  April  fifteenth,  and  this  is  only 
a  nominal  beginning,  for  the  lectures  will  not  be  opened,  in 
all  probability,  till  the  very  last  of  the  month.  Even  the 
Pro-rector  is  not  always  on  hand  when  the  term  begins. 
Think  of  President  Eliot  or  President  Harper  behaving  like 
that  !  And  the  professors  take  their  own  time  for  starting 
in  with  their  Vorlesungen.  The  old  city  is  therefore  un- 
usually still. 

I  think  I  can  best  introduce  my  new  home  to  my  old 
friends  by  inviting  them  to  two  walks,  —  the  first  along  the 
rampart,  or  old  wall,  which  surrounds  the  ancient  city.  It 
is  half-past  seven  o'clock,  and  in  company  with  my  oldest 
daughter  I  am  taking  my  son  to  school,  and  for  the  first 
time  he  and  I  are  to  enter  a  German  schoolhouse.     Per- 


TWO   GOTTINGEN   WALKS.  25 

mission  has  already  been  gained  for  him  to  be  admitted 
into  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II.  Realschule,  where  the  tuition  is 
twelve  and  a  half  marks  a  semester.  Still,  this  is  a  public 
school,  under  the  control  of  the  German  government. 

A  few  minutes  bring  us  to  the  wall,  now  tamed  to  a  lovers' 
walk,  beneath  whose  magnificent  trees  we  find  ourselves  fol- 
lowing a  path  which  not  only  encompasses  the  city  but  also 
leads  out  into  dreamland.  The  first  wall  about  Gottingen 
was  built  at  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century,  by  the  com- 
mand of  the  Emperor  Henry  I.,  and  was  intended  to  protect 
the  town  from  the  destroying  Huns,  whose  fiery  incursions 
made  German  life  rather  interesting  in  those  days.  All  that 
is  now  left  of  this  original  defence  is  a  fragment  of  wall  in  a 
meaner  part  of  the  city  which  the  inhabitants  rather  con- 
temptuously call  "  Little  Paris."  The  present  rampart, 
made  mostly  of  earth,  was  two  hundred  years  in  building, 
and  was  finished  only  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 
ago.  Many  of  the  trees  in  the  double  rows  that  line  and 
shelter  this  beautiful  promenade  appear  to  be  about  two 
centuries  old.  I  know  no  finer  walk  in  the  world.  The 
Unter  den  Linden  in  Berlin  is  not  to  be  mentioned  in  the 
same  breath  with  it. 

We  see  at  once  that  the  town  has  outgrown  its  ancient 
limits,  and  that  much  of  the  best  part  of  it  is  now  outside 
the  wall.  We  look  over  a  city  of  more  than  twenty-five 
thousand  inhabitants,  which,  according  to  James  Morgan 
Hart,  in  his  book  on  "  German  Universities,"  contained  in 
1 86 1  only  about  twelve  thousand.  When  Motley  was  here 
in  1832,  it  must  have  been  considerably  smaller,  I  have 
found  the  city  picturesque,  with  modern  shops  and  broader 
ways  blending  with  the  narrow,  old,  winding  streets,  where 
the  mud-walled  houses  are  often  covered  with  pictures  and 
decorations  somewhat  like  those  on  the  fine  German  build- 
ing at  the  Columbian  Fair. 

From  an  elevated  promenade  we  look  between  the  lime- 
trees  and  beyond  the  towers  of  the  old  churches,  and  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  country  lying  about  Gottingen.      Here  is  a 


26  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

broad,  open  plain,  not  unlike  that  of  the  Connecticut  valley, 
creeping  up  on  all  sides  into  hills,  which  furnish  innumer- 
able walks  for  a  people  who  find  walking  one  of  their  chief 
recreations.  There  are  several  ruined  castles  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, one  of  which  —  Plesse  —  is  considered  fine.  But 
the  best  part  of  our  walk  in  the  morning  air  is  the  company 
we  keep. 

For  a  university  town,  which  has  harbored  many  famous 
men,  one  is  strangely  free  from  those  thronging  and  delight- 
ful impressions  which  make  the  magic  of  Oxford.  The  ivy- 
hushed  seclusions  are  not  here,  nor  the  pavements  that 
seem  sweet  with  the  "immemorial  lisp"  of  the  musing 
feet  of  scholars.  The  Germans  are  pre-eminently  prac- 
tical and  prosaic  in  building  their  universities.  There  are 
no  grandeurs  of  architecture ;  there  is  no  picturesque 
grouping  of  buildings.  Harvard,  Yale,  Cornell,  our  own 
University,  and  several  American  colleges  outrank  Got- 
tingen  in  architectural  splendor  and  impressiveness.  I 
should  not  say,  with  another,  that  the  prevailing  type  of  the 
English  University  suggests  that  it  is  all  body,  and  that  the 
prevailing  type  of  the  German  University  suggests  that  it  is 
all  soul ;  but  even  this  strong,  one-sided  statement  points 
and  leads  the  way  to  an  apprehension  of  the  marked  and 
suggestive  difference  between  such  a  university  as  that  by 
the  Isis  and  this  younger  seat  of  learning  on  the  Leine. 
With  this  introduction  let  me  now  add  the  statement  that 
only  on  the  famous  promenade  about  the  town  have  I 
deeply  felt  the  presence  of  those  spiritual  guests  who  throng 
and  dignify  so  many  parts  of  this  Old  World. 

But  who  are  our  companions  in  this  early  morning  stroll  ? 
First  of  all,  I  feel  the  presence  of  Heine,  the  German  poet, 
who,  as  Matthew  Arnold  believed,  was  Goethe's  chief  suc- 
cessor. Many  Germans  dislike  and  hate  him;  and  this 
university,  which  found  it  convenient  to  get  rid  of  him 
in  1820,  has  no  great  affection  for  the  irreverent  satirist, 
who  yet  had,  what  few  Germans  ever  attain  to,  a  graceful 
and  rhythmical  style.     Heine  worshipped  the  great  Napo- 


TWO   G'dTTINGEN  WALKS.  2J 

leon,  and  why  should  Germany  love  him?  Did  he  not 
begin  his  Hartz-Journey  with  these  words?  — 

"  The  town  of  Gottingen,  famous  for  its  sausages  and  uni- 
versity, belongs  to  the  King  of  Hanover,  and  contains  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  firesides,  several  churches,  an 
observatory,  a  prison,  a  library,  and  a  Rathskeller,  where 
the  beer  is  very  good." 

And  after  Heine,  in  my  imagination,  though  thirty  years 
before  him  in  time,  walks  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge.  How 
often  he  must  have  mused  and  spun  out  his  endless  specu- 
lations as  he  made  the  circuit  of  the  town  on  this  rampart  ! 
Few  poets  have  given  us  intenser  pleasure  than  this  man, 
who  was  able  to  write  a  few  perfect  things.  I  have  already 
met  him  in  the  vale  of  Chamonix,  and  seen  the  sunrise 
over  Mont  Blanc  through  his  illumined  and  reverent  vis- 
ion. Every  voyager  who  knows  "  The  Ancient  Mariner" 
meets  him  on  the  sea,  and  now  and  then  in  some  highland 
nook  by  some  tiny  cascade,  the  traveller  repeats  after  him  : 

"  Beneath  yon  birch  with  silver  bark 
And  boughs  so  pendulous  and  fair, 
The  brook  falls  scattered  down  the  rock, 
And  all  is  mossy  there." 

Of  course  we  meet  Bancroft  and  Everett  in  our  walk. 
The  grandiose  American  historian  and  the  Ciceronian  ora- 
tor are  very  welcome  and  noble  company.  But  even  more 
interesting  to  me  is  the  youthful  form  of  the  most  popular 
of  American  poets,  —  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.  He 
is  the  one  American  singer  whom  Germany  has,  in  a  meas- 
ure, adopted.  There  is  much  in  Germany  akin  to  the 
spirit  of  Longfellow,  as  all  know  who  have  read  the  "  Golden 
Legend,"  or  his  volumes  of  melodious  prose.  Of  course 
we  shall  always  affectionately  claim  the  bard  who  gave  us 
"  Evangeline  "  and  "  Hiawatha,"  smacking  of  our  own  soil ; 
but  his  genius  had  not  in  it  the  Americanism  of  Emerson, 
Lowell,  Whittier,  and  Holmes.  None  the  less  he  is  loved. 
He  is  one  of  the  golden  links  binding  us  to  the  storied 
past  of  the  Fatherland,  and  I  am  glad  to  see  him  as  he 


28  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

appeared  in  his  enchanted  youth,  pacing  slowly  beneath 
these  trees,  and  watching  the  sun  rise  over  the  Hartz 
mountains.  Schopenhauer  brooded  his  pessimism  beneath 
these  shades,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  and  Hermann 
Lotze  meditated  here  his  deeper  and  truer  thoughts. 

But  the  greatest  figure  that  ever  walked  this  rampart  was 
that  of  Count  Bismarck,  now  Prince  Bismarck,  chief  builder 
of  the  German  Empire.  Gottingen  loves  the  Iron  Chan- 
cellor, who  once  lived  here  the  rollicking,  duelling  life  of 
the  German  student.  When  his  name  is  toasted  on  the 
Kaiser's  birthday,  the  students,  professors,  and  guests  give 
it  the  loudest  of  greetings,  and  sing  the  Bismarck  song  with 
most  fervent  enthusiasm.  The  house  where  he  lived  as  a 
student  in  1832  and  1833,  and  from  whose  window  it  is  said 
that  he  jumped  into  the  Leine  canal  to  escape  from  a  visit- 
ing creditor,  bears  the  inscription  of  his  name  with  the  date. 
And  yonder  to  the  southeast  on  a  hill,  about  two  miles 
away,  stands  the  beautiful  and  recently  builded  Bismarck 
Tower,  a  grand  place  of  observation,  a  stately  landmark, 
and  a  noble  memorial  of  the  proud  love  which  the  Georgia 
Augusta  University  of  Gottingen  bears  to  her  most  illus- 
trious son. 

Our  own  historian,  Motley,  lived  yonder  in  the  Buch- 
strasse,  near  the  great  library,  while  Bismarck  was  carrying 
on  his  somewhat  prankish  career  in  this  town ;  and  the 
two  began  here  that  cordial  friendship  which  lasted  till  Mot- 
ley's death.  Cane  in  hand,  walking  rapidly  and  talking 
rapidly,  these  famous  young  men  meet  us  in  our  morning 
promenade.  I  have  had  a  chivalrous  devotion  to  Motley  ever 
since  I  read,  in  college  days,  his  "  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
public." This  knight  of  learning,  who,  with  all  the  Ameri- 
can's fineness  of  organization,  had  a  German  professor's 
invincible  energy  in  plodding  through  libraries  and  archives 
and  toiling  over  almost  indecipherable  manuscripts,  has 
made  Holland  a  second  fatherland  to  American  lovers  of 
liberty,  and  I  can  never  think  of  his  friendship  with  Bis- 
marck as  the  union  of  spirits  who  cherished   similar  con- 


TWO   GOTTINGEN  WALKS.  29 

victions  in  regard  to  all  fundamental  matters  of  government. 
And  yet  Motley  rejoiced  in  the  unification  of  Germany  as 
he  did  also  in  the  saving  and  cementing  of  our  American 
nationality. 

As  we  walk  about  the  rampart,  we  may  look  down  into 
the  Botanical  Gardens,  occupying  the  place  where  the  an- 
cient moat  formed  one  of  the  defences  of  the  city.  Rows 
of  white  boards  record  the  names  of  flowers  that  spring 
from  hundreds  of  little  mounds.  But  profane  students 
affirm  that  these  are  the  graves  of  privat-docents,  who  died 
early,  seeking  in  vain  to  extract  the  milk  of  life  from  the 
barren  breast  of  a  German  University  !  Through  an  open- 
ing in  the  trees  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  Albani  Kirche, 
the  oldest  church  in  Gottingen ;  for  although  the  present 
building  dates  back  only  to  1423,  it  stands  on  the  site  of 
the  altar  at  which  St.  Bonifacius  ministered  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighth  century.  For  more  than  eleven  hundred 
years  the  fires  of  Christian  faith  have  burned  on  that  sacred 
hearth.  And  there,  before  Charlemagne  was  crowned,  and 
when  all  was  savage  in  this  home  of  our  Saxon  ancestors, 
the  saintly  preacher  uplifted  the  Cross,  there  proclaimed 
the  message  of  light  and  of  life  to  which  the  German  world 
owes  its  vitality,  its  civilization,  its  purity,  and  its  hope. 

Descending  from  the  wall  by  the  Geismar  Thor,  we  pass 
near  the  barracks,  where,  even  at  this  early  hour,  several 
hundred  imperial  soldiers  are  being  put  very  energetically 
and  noisily  through  their  drill.  The  schoolboys,  each  with 
a  knapsack  of  books  strapped  over  his  shoulders,  are  going 
with  us  toward  the  new  brick  schoolhouse.  The  army  and 
the  school  have  probably  made  modern  Germawy  what  it  is. 
Something  of  the  military  spirit  enters  even  into  education. 
The  boys  everywhere  play  soldier,  and  you  feel  the  hand  of 
the  government  at  every  turn.  As  I  committed  my  little 
boy  into  the  keeping  of  Herr  Director  Ahrends,  I  in- 
quired whether  I  might  enter  the  schoolroom  and  listen 
to  the  exercises.  He  smiled  as  he  shook  his  head  and 
said,  — 


30  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

"  Not  without  permission  from  the  Kultus  Minister  in 
Berlin." 

To  be  a  good  traveller  in  Europe,  one  needs  a  pair  of 
good  legs  and  the  habit  of  walking.  He  needs  also  a  pair 
of  good  eyes  trained  to  careful  observation.  Furthermore, 
he  should  possess  the  social,  appreciative,  and  unprejudiced 
spirit  which  enters  sympathetically  into  the  lives  of  other 
peoples.  I  find  that  some  of  my  fellow-countrymen  are 
bad  travellers  in  the  Old  World  because  their  fundamental 
creed  may  be  expressed  in  these  words  :  Difference  from 
America  is  the  measure  of  absurdity.  Such  people  would 
doubtless  discover  an  immense  variety  of  things  with  which 
to  find  fault  in  the  life,  the  ways,  and  the  surroundings  of 
this  old  city  of  Gottingen ;  but  I  have  fallen  in  love  with 
some  of  the  features  of  German  life  as  they  are  disclosed 
to  me  here. 

After  all,  one  of  the  chief  requirements  in  the  traveller  or 
visitor  amid  such  regions  as  this  is  a  pair  of  eyes  in  the 
back  of  his  mind.  It  is  the  ability  to  see  the  life  that  has 
been,  the  disposition  to  brood  over  the  scenes  of  remote 
generations,  and  the  delight  in  tracing  the  picturesque  and 
majestic  historic  evolutions  which  connect  the  present  with 
the  shadowy  remoteness  of  distant  ages,  which  furnish 
the  keenest  pleasure  in  a  walk  like  this  one  around  the 
rampart,  or  like  another  stroll  I  have  taken.  This  second 
walk  will  be  far  longer  than  that  which  the  Autocrat  and 
the  schoolmistress  took  together  across  Boston  Common 
and  through  their  brief  life  pilgrimage.  The  two  miles 
from  Gottingen  to  Weende  will  carry  us  through  more  than 
.one  th©usar*l  years  of  history. 

A  sudden  snowstorm  had  covered  the  grass,  crocuses,  and 
hepaticas ;  had  touched  with  harmless  white  fingers  the 
hardy  buds  on  all  the  trees,  and  then  had  passed  quickly 
away,  leaving  the  sun  an  opportunity  of  removing  in  a  few 
minutes  nearly  all  traces  of  the  storm.  How  bright  and 
fresh  the  world  of  the  spring-time  appeared  as  I  set  out 
upon  this  tramp,  in  the   company  of  one  who  at  present 


TWO   G'OTTINGEN   WALKS.  3 1 

bears  the  new  appellation  of  Frau  Doctorin.  Our  home  is 
outside  the  walls,  in  the  newer  and  higher  part  of  the 
town.  But  our  walk  led  us  back  by  the  rampart  to  Got- 
tingen's  Auditorium,  the  very  respectable  lecture-hall  of  the 
university.  We  are  on  Weender-strasse,  the  leading  street 
of  the  town.  Over  there  on  the  left  are  the  houses,  prop- 
erly marked,  in  which  Edward  Everett  and  George  Ban- 
croft each  spent  two  years  laying  the  foundations  of  the 
broader  culture  which  served  them  so  well  in  later  life. 

This  Weender-strasse  is  one  of  the  oldest  paths  worn  by 
the  feet  of  European  men.  It  reaches  not  only  to  the  little 
Dorf  of  Weende,  two  miles  away,  whither  we  are  now  tend- 
ing, but  on  down  the  valley,  and  runs  into  the  main  high- 
way from  Frankfort  on  the  south  to  Hanover  and  Bremen 
on  the  north.  What  a  motley  procession,  from  the  days  of 
these  German  students  and  Russian,  Greek,  English,  and 
American  visitors,  away  back  through  all  the  periods  of 
German  history,  has  tramped  this  way  !  Oh  for  a  spiritual 
kodak  wherewith  to  photograph  the  vanished  forms  of 
savage  warriors,  of  armored  knights,  of  grand  dukes,  kings, 
and  kaisers,  who  have  streamed  along  this  path  ! 

There  upon  our  left  rises  the  Burg  Grona,  or  rather  the 
hilly  site  of  the  old  residence  of  the  counts,  and  also  one 
of  the  residences  of  the  German  kaisers  of  the  Saxon  stem. 
The  first  of  that  line  —  Henry  the  Fowler,  so  called  because 
he  was  bird-catching  when  he  received  the  news  of  his 
nomination  asking  —  lived  there  in  the  year  919.  Flow 
interested  we  should  be  to  see  this  king  of  the  Franks, 
with  his  retinue,  coming  down  from  the  old  castle,  or  to 
look  at  his  more  famous  son,  Otho  the  Great,  the  monarch 
who  deposed  popes,  conquered  Bohemia,  and  forced  the 
King  of  Denmark  to  become  a  convert  to  Christianity  ! 
It  was  back  in  the  time  of  the  great  Otho  that  silver- 
mines  were  first  discovered  in  the  Hartz  mountains,  over 
yonder  on  our  right.  And  here,  too,  in  the  Burg  Grona, 
lived,  now  and  then,  the  son  and  grandson  of  Otho  the 
Great,  the  kaisers  bearing  the  names  of  Otho  the  Red  and 


32  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Otho  III.  And  the  Burg  is  associated  also  with  the  last  of 
the  Saxon  emperors,  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Charle- 
magne, and  was  crowned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  the  year 
1002. 

But  we  turn  our  faces  northward,  leaving  the  Weender 
Thor  behind  us,  and  walk  toward  the  open  fields.  In  a 
few  minutes  we  can  see  the  full  width  of  the  broad  valley  of 
the  Leine,  sweeping  on  either  side  over  wide  meadows,  and 
very  gently  climbing  toward  the  verdured  hills.  As  we  look 
back  upon  the  town,  above  whose  housetops  rise  the  spires 
of  the  Jacobi  Kirche  and  the  Johannis  Kirche,  we  see  how 
it  appears  to  be  the  natural  centre  of  paths  and  roads  lead- 
ing down  from  all  these  hilly  slopes.  If  our  eyes  were 
opened — and  I  hope  that  we  have  read  enough  of  the 
early  history  of  our  race  to  open  them  —  we  should  see,  far 
back  in  the  twilight  of  German  history,  little  bands  of 
strangely  clad  foresters,  peasants,  hunters,  warriors,  stream- 
ing down  these  hillsides  to  Gottingen,  to  the  primitive  town 
meeting,  or  county  meeting,  the  cradle  of  the  liberties  of 
the  English-speaking  nations.  The  men  who  in  that 
remote  past  dwelt  in  their  rude  huts  on  these  hills  of  the 
Leine  assembled  in  this  county  court,  presided  over  by 
some  Graf,  a  court  which  survived  through  the  middle  ages, 
though  more  and  more  curtailed  of  its  privileges. 

Forgetting  for  the  moment  the  transformations  and 
sometimes  the  almost  complete  destruction  of  the  forms  of 
free  government,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  our  own  price- 
less liberties  had  their  roots  in  these  early  town  meetings. 
This  is  the  region  from  which  the  builders  of  England  went 
out,  and  the  language  which  the  peasant  population  speak 
to-day  in  the  Hartz  country  —  the  Piatt  Deutsch  —  resem- 
bles more  closely  our  English  speech  than  does  the  kindred 
German  which  now  overlies  the  more  ancient  tongue.  A 
direct  line  reaches  from  these  early  assemblies  to  the  town 
meetings  of  New  England  and  the  self-governing  institu- 
tions of  all  English-speaking  countries.  I  remember  that 
the  latest  biographer  of  Samuel  Adams  vividly  suggests  the 


TWO  gOttingen  walks.  33 

ancestry  of  our  liberties  in  writing  that  the  Old  State  House 
in  Boston  had  witnessed  scenes  as  memorable  as  any  in  the 
whole  history  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom  since  our  fathers 
clashed  their  shields  together  in  token  of  approval  in  the 
forests  of  the  Elbe  and  the  Weser.  And  the  Leine  is  a 
branch  of  the  Weser. 

It  is  a  plucky  people  that  has  inhabited  yonder  city  for 
the  last  thousand  years.  The  cloth-weavers  and  other 
burghers  of  Gottingen  were  as  valorous  in  fighting  marauding 
knights  and  pillaging  counts  and  oppressive  dukes  as  were 
the  citizens  of  Amsterdam  and  Leyden.  They  had  the 
fighting  spirit  of  their  savage  fathers,  who,  under  the 
leadership  of  Arminius,  defeated  the  Roman  legions  in 
the  year  9  of  the  Christian  era.  The  scene  of  that  fight, 
an  hour's  journey  from  where  we  are  now  walking,  has 
been  recently  marked  by  a  great  statue  of  Arminius,  or 
Hermann.  In  the  Rathhaus  I  have  read  the  motto  of  the 
town,  which  recalls,  in  vigorous  German  rhyme,  that  the 
city  was  foremost  in  strife,  bravely  loyal  to  Luther,  and 
devoted  to  wisdom.  This  Protestant  city  suffered  terribly 
in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  was  besieged  by  Tilly. 

What  a  long,  strange  history  has  been  that  of  German 
unification  !  The  site  of  the  Bismarck  Tower  on  the  height 
over  yonder  recalls  to  our  minds  the  fact  that  this  century 
and  our  own  generation  have  seen  the  completion  of  this 
effort  and  struggle  toward  unity.  A  great  race,  with  a 
common  language  and  system  of  laws  handed  down  from 
Roman  times,  was  divided  and  weakened  by  a  score  of 
petty  sovereignties,  and  it  was  given  to  one  man,  once  a 
reckless  student  in  Gottingen,  to  fulfil  the  aspirations  and 
to  realize  the  dreams  of  the  Fatherland. 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire,  which,  as  Voltaire  said,  was 
neither  holy,  Roman,  nor  an  empire,  finally  disappeared  in 
the  first  of  this  century.  It  has  vanished  as  completely  as 
the  castle  on  the  Burg  Grona,  where  upon  a  huge  stone  we 
are  told  that  once  the  Saxon  kaisers  lived  here,  while 
beneath  is  a  Latin  inscription  to  the  effect  that  wheat  now 

3 


34  ^    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

grows  on  the  soil  where  Ilium  once  stood.  But  the  new 
German  Empire  is  to-day  almost  the  greatest  military  and 
national  force  in  European  life.  Who  doubts  that  Bismarck's 
name  will  loom  up  before  future  generations  almost  like 
that  of  Charlemagne  !  He  who  knows  what  has  gone  on 
in  yonder  little  town  and  what  waves  of  stormy  struggle  have 
rolled  about  it,  knows  the  main  stream  of  German  history 
for  two  thousand  years. 

Our  walk  has  led  us  past  a  cemetery,  a  sugar  factory,  a 
Gasthaus  or  two,  and  near  the  track  of  the  railway  over 
which  four  weeks  ago  that  train  now  passing,  the  Har- 
monica-zug,  brought  us,  at  this  very  hour,  into  Gdttingen. 
The  fields  lie  open  to  the  sky,  and  the  cloud  shadows  on 
the  hills  are  beautiful.  Yonder  rises  the  spire  of  the 
Nicolausberg  church.  People  everywhere  seem  to  live  only 
in  villages  or  larger  towns.  The  farm-houses  dotting  the 
landscape  here  and  there  in  America  are  rarely  seen  here. 
From  time  immemorial  people  in  these  regions  have  flocked 
together  for  defence  from  savage  beasts  and  savage  men. 
The  forms  and  features  of  life  to-day  were  determined 
largely  by  conditions  which  prevailed  thousands  of  years 
ago.  The  church  spires  in  yonder  city  and  in  those  pictur- 
esque villages  recall  the  fact  that  our  faith  has  been  preached 
here  for  more  than  ten  long  centuries ;  but  the  Easter 
bonfires  which  lighted  all  these  hills  two  evenings  after  our 
walk  are  memorials  of  the  customs  of  our  Saxon  fathers  and 
of  the  days  when  these  worshippers  of  the  wild  gods  of  the 
north  saluted  the  coming  of  the  spring  with  fiery  beacons 
and  joyful  hymns. 

Our  walk  ends  with  the  little  Dorf,  whose  churchyard 
is  the  only  German  cemetery  that  I  have  thus  far  vis- 
ited. It  might  have  been  just  such  a  scene  as  this  that 
inspired  Gray  to  write  his  immortal  elegy.  The  rude 
forefathers  of  this  hamlet,  together  with  some  of  nobler 
name,  lie  buried  here  —  or  rest  in  God,  as  the  frequent 
inscription  tells  us.  Our  walk  has  suggested  or  recalled 
many  of  the  splendid  or  bloody  pageants  of  history.     But 


TWO    GOTTINCEN    WALKS.  35 

here  we  feel  anew  that  the  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the 
grave.  One  bright  inscription  sent  my  thoughts  four  thou- 
sand miles  away  on  happy  wings  to  my  own  city  of  the  West. 
I  read,  in  German,  the  words  from  which  I  had  preached 
my  final  sermon  to  the  people  and  community  that  I  love 
so  well :  "  Now  abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three  ;  but 
the  greatest  of  these  is  love."  Amid  all  that  is  transitory  — 
dynasties,  castles,  kings,  dukes,  languages,  towns,  customs, 
and  creeds  —  there  remain  immortal  treasures  against  which 
even  the  hand  of  death  is  powerless.  The  morning  mail 
from  America  had  brought  us  rich  treasures  of  affection ; 
and  as  we  walked  home,  though  the  clouds  gathered  again 
and  followed  us  like  a  black  army  up  the  valley,  the 
messages  from  the  New  World  filled  our  hearts  with  cheer, 
and  seemed  to  spread  over  the  darkening  hills  a  spiritual 
splendor,  some  gleams  of  the  light  that  never  was  on  sea 
or  land. 


CHAPTER   III. 

FIRST   IMPRESSIONS    OF   GERMAN    LIFE. 

r  I  "O  me  the  most  astonishing  contrast  between  my  present 
■*■  and  my  former  environment  is  the  fact  that  spring  is 
here  a  beautiful  reality  and  not  "  a  pious  fraud  in  the  alma- 
nac." The  Province  of  Hanover  is  in  the  same  latitude 
with  Labrador,  but  it  has  the  spring  climate  of  Virginia.  I 
have  seen  people  on  the  sixteenth  of  March  enjoying  their 
bread  and  beer  sitting  out  of  doors.  One  great  gush  of 
blossoms  is  now  storming  the  world.  Our  tables  are  cov- 
ered with  bouquets  of  "  February  flowers,"  so  called  because 
they  sometimes  blossom  in  the  second  month  of  the  year. 
The  gardens  are  golden  with  crocuses  and  blue  with  hepat- 
icas,  over  which  I  watched  the  bees  and  butterflies  hovering 
as  I  took  my  yesterday's  stroll.  Nowhere  else  have  I  seen 
hepaticas  so  large,  and  nowhere  else  have  I  found  them  in 
gardens  in  such  beautiful  profusion.  The  ancestors  of  these 
blue  firstlings  of  March  may  have  decked  the  yellow  tresses 
of  Saxon  maidens  who  cheered  the  warriors  that  marched 
over  these  hills  and  through  these  valleys  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  to  fight  the  legions  of  Rome.  Yes,  the 
German  spring  has  a  charm  of  its  own,  and  is  not  confused 
with  summer,  as  with  us  in  America. 

Passing  from  the  world  of  nature  to  the  world  of  human 
life,  I  find  that  I  have  at  last  gotten  beyond  the  stirring 
domain  of  the  metropolitan  morning  journal.  The  first 
interest  of  every  American  citizen,  as  he  rouses  himself 
from  slumber,  is  not  his  coffee,  but  his  paper.  "  What  is 
the  news  from  the  stock  market?  What  is  going  on  in 
Washington  or  in  London?     What  has  happened  in  Paris 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  GERMAN  LIFE.         37 

or  South  Africa?  What  is  the  society  news?  What  fires, 
accidents,  murders,  scandals  are  giving  a  lurid  interest  to 
life?"  Here,  when  we  wish  any  tidings  of  the  outside 
world,  we  resort  to  the  Cafe  National  and  look  over  the 
"  London  Times."  Little  dailies  are  published  in  Gottingen, 
but  they  are  far  from  exciting,  and  contain  few  items  of 
news,  except  from  Hanover  and  Berlin.  So  far  as  I  have 
heard,  the  only  thing  that  ever  roused  Gottingen  to  any 
high-pitched  excitement  was  Roentgen's  discovery,  which 
has  filled  all  the  book-stores  and  print-shops  here  with  a 
variety  of  interesting  photographs. 

We  are  living  in  a  newly  built  house  containing  what  is 
here  a  rare  luxury,  a  bath-tub.  Still,  cleanliness  is  a  Ger- 
man virtue.  Brooms,  however,  are  little  used.  The  maids, 
crawling  around  the  floor,  give  it  a  hasty  brush,  and  then, 
every  morning,  thoroughly  wash  it  with  an  abundance  of 
water.  We  have  had  a  wet  winter,  and  two  American 
young  women  found  their  floors  so  continually  damp  that 
they  were  forced  to  wear  rubbers  in  their  rooms  all  the 
time  from  December  to  March  !  Housekeeping  is  simpli- 
fied and  its  cares  lessened  by  the  absence  of  the  formidable 
American  breakfast.  Any  time  before  ten  o'clock  we  go  to 
the  dining-room,  singly  or  in  pairs,  and  take  our  bread  and 
coffee  with  the  additional  luxury  of  one  or  more  eggs. 
How  we  come  to  enjoy  the  hard  German  rolls  !  And  what 
a  contrast  this  German  bread,  the  Schwartz-brod  and  the 
Zwiebach,  presents  to  the  great  variety  of  soft  breads  which 
help  to  weaken  and  spoil  our  American  teeth  !  Dinner 
comes  at  two  o'clock,  and,  with  us,  is  profuse  and  generous. 
Some  of  its  characteristic  features  are  chopped  meats 
roasted,  lentils,  peas  and  carrots  together,  beans  and  apples 
together,  stewed  fruit  and  a  delicious  variety  of  puddings 
and  cakes.  No  beer  or  coffee  is  served  with  our  dinner. 
At  half-past  four,  earlier  or  later,  coffee  (or  tea)  is  made 
ready  with  Zwiebach  and  Kuchen.  This  is  the  meal  to 
which  we  are  expected  to  invite  our  friends,  and  it  can  be 
served  in  our  own  sitting-room.     Supper  is  ready  at  eight 


38  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

o'clock,  and  then,  besides  several  hot  dishes,  we  have 
cold  meats  and  a  variety  of  good  salads.  The  quantity  of 
food  which  people  eat  in  Germany  astonishes  Americans, 
who  find  it  easy,  however,  to  conform  to  German  habits  ! 
This  arrangement  of  meals  affords  much  leisure  for  work 
and  walking.  Only  dinner  and  supper  consume  any  great 
amount  of  time,  and  after  these  all  rise  from  the  table  and 
say  "  Gesegnete  Mahlzeit." 

A  great  deal  of  sport  has  been  made  of  the  German 
single  bed,  where  the  sleeper  lies  down  and  is  covered  with 
a  mountain  of  enclosed  feathers.  The  covering,  however, 
is  not  heavy,  is  not  easily  displaced,  except  by  over- nervous 
children,  and  one  is  sure  to  be  kept  warm  during  the  whole 
night.  The  stoves  here  are  generally  architectural  struc- 
tures six  or  more  feet  high  ;  but  ours,  of  modern  pattern,  are 
not  three  feet  in  height.  These  stoves  are  usually  built 
into  the  house,  and  are  rarely  moved.  Service  is  very 
cheap.  The  maids  receive  almost  nothing,  except  a  living, 
and  welcome  fees  which  would  be  laughed  at  by  the  rulers 
of  our  American  kitchens.  Housemaids  are  continually 
sent  on  errands,  and  we  see  them  on  the  street,  hatless  and 
sleeveless,  with  their  healthy  and  good-natured  faces,  utterly 
free  from  that  pride  which  will  not  permit  your  servant  to 
walk  to  the  letter-box  unless  she  is  quite  as  well  dressed  as 
most  of  the  ladies  of  Germany.  Our  maid,  Theresa,  fifteen 
years  of  age,  builds  our  fires,  washes  our  floors,  brushes  our 
clothes,  cleans  our  shoes,  and  runs  on  our  errands. 

It  is  hard  for  me  to  get  used  to  the  sight  of  the  peasant 
women,  carrying  big,  heavy  baskets  strapped  on  their  backs 
as  they  trudge  past  my  window  every  morning  on  their  way 
to  market.  The  loads  of  care  which  many  American 
women  bear  may  be  far  more  crushing,  but  still  I  have  the 
feeling  that  womanhood,  wifehood,  and  motherhood  are  not 
properly  respected,  are  not  clothed  with  appropriate  dignity, 
wherever  women  are  accustomed  to  do  the  work  of  horses 
and  oxen.  A  few  mornings  ago,  four  members  of  this 
household  made  an  early  start  for  a  two  weeks'  trip  to  the 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  GERMAN  LIFE.  39 

Hartz  mountains.  An  order,  left  the  night  before,  for  ex- 
press service  in  carrying  the  trunk  and  hand-baggage  to  the 
station,  brought  promptly  to  the  house,  at  seven  o'clock,  a 
stalwart  woman  with  her  hand-cart.  In  Germany  the  wife 
walking  by  her  husband  carries  the  bundles. 

Of  course  the  green  and  feathered  hats  which  we  see  on 
the  street,  the  colored  caps  of  the  Corps  students,  and  the 
constant  presence  of  soldiers  are  to  us  quite  noticeable,  as 
is  also  the  absence  of  horses.  Gottingen  is  not  quite  like 
Venice  in  this  last  respect,  for  a  few  of  these  noble  quad- 
rupeds are  occasionally  visible.  Nobody  about  us  seems  to 
be  in  a  hurry.  Many,  besides  the  large  number  of  idle 
students,  seem  to  give  their  lives  to  "bummling,"  as  aim- 
less walking  the  streets  is  called.  Unlike  those  of  an 
American  city,  these  streets  are  clean.  No  one  seems  dis- 
posed to  litter  them  with  papers  and  rubbish.  So  far  as  I 
can  discover,  Germans  have  no  disposition  to  throw  any- 
thing away.  Small  economies  are  everywhere  practised. 
An  American  girl  who  tried  in  vain  to  get  rid  of  an  old 
mucilage-bottle  only  to  find  it  returned  to  her  study-table 
daily  by  her  careful  maid,  was  finally  obliged  to  carry  it  off 
and  drop  it  into  the  river  !  All  labor  is  cheap,  including 
that  of  university  professors.  Nobody  here  expects  ever  to 
be  rich,  so  that  life  appears  to  have  more  moderation  and 
contentment  than  with  us.  My  excellent  landlady,  a  woman 
of  wide  experience  and  high  intelligence,  who  has  had  her 
residence  in  Jena  and  in  Frankfort,  reports  that  in  Frank- 
fort it  was  not  pleasant  to  live,  because  riches  there  count 
for  so  much,  and  so  many  are  restlessly  eager  to  be  rich. 

Americans  are  rather  popular  in  Gottingen,  but  the 
people  here  associate  with  our  country  a  great  amount  of 
freakishness,  an  excess  of  individuality.  Here  custom  rules. 
There  is  great  outward  politeness.  Deference  to  official 
rank  is  universal.  When  I  wear  my  silk  hat  through  the 
streets,  I  am  taken  for  a  celebrity,  and  bowed  to  by  stran- 
gers !  When  the  teacher  enters  the  school-room,  all  the 
pupils  rise.     When  the  Director  enters,  the  teachers  also 


40  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

rise.  Americans  are  regarded,  to  a  certain  degree,  as  oddi- 
ties. An  American  girl  on  a  wheel  provokes  critical  com- 
ment. For  several  days  this  city  has  had  a  visit,  almost  a 
visitation,  from  a  show  calling  itself  "  An  Aggregation  of 
American  Phenomena."  The  tattooed  man  and  woman,  the 
heaviest  married  couple  in  the  world,  the  smallest  of  living 
men,  the  man  with  the  lion's  jaw  and  ostrich's  stomach, 
the  Albino  with  a  shock  of  white  hair  as  big  as  an  umbrella, 
looking  like  an  elephantine  chrysanthemum,  the  man  who 
swallows  petroleum,  sets  his  breath  on  fire  and  sends  a 
flame  twenty  feet  into  the  air,  —  these  "  American  phenom- 
ena "  have  been  drawing  crowds  to  the  Gottingen  Colos- 
seum. The  other  day  I  had  inquired  of  a  stranger  on  the 
street  the  way  to  a  certain  cafe,  and  he  poured  forth  upon 
me  such  a  volume  of  German  that  I  endeavored  to  stop 
him  by  saying  that  I  could  n't  understand  the  language 
well,  being  an  American ;  whereupon  he  exclaimed  with 
cheerful  interest,  "  Oh,  you  are  from  the  Colosseum 
troupe  !  "  The  maid  calls  me  "  Herr  Doctor,"  but  now 
some  of  my  friends,  to  whom  I  have  told  this  incident, 
speak  of  me  as  "Herr  Director,"  from  the  Colosseum  1 
It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  Americans  are  some- 
times considered  oddities.  Herr  Harry,  our  landlady's 
son,  who  within  a  year  will  take  his  degree  as  a  jurist 
at  the  university,  informs  me  that  the  only  American 
books  which  he  has  read  are  "  Helen's  Babies "  and 
"  Peck's  Bad  Boy  "  ! 

The  study  of  national  peculiarities  is  marvellously  inter- 
esting. The  concert  garden,  as  every  one  knows,  is  a  Ger- 
man institution,  found  in  all  cities  and  larger  towns,  and 
Gottingen  has  two  orchestras  and  two  concert  gardens 
open  nearly  every  evening  through  the  long  summer.  A 
family  season  ticket  for  three  persons  is  six  marks,  or  about 
one  dollar  and  a  half,  so  that  the  rates  bring  within 
reach  of  most  of  the  people  the  delights  which  are  so  dear 
to  the  German  heart.  With  the  American  colony,  usually  we 
go  to  the  Stadt  Park,  a  historic  place  in  Gottingen  ;  for 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  GERMAN  LIFE.         4 1 

beneath  its  magnificent  chestnut-trees  have  been  gathered  in 
the  last  century  all  the  celebrities,  poets,  historians,  jurists, 
divines,  statesmen,  scientists,  soldiers,  and  world-famous 
scholars  whose  names  are  associated  with  this  university 
town.  The  various  student  societies  have  long  tables  to 
themselves,  and  show  us  many  a  proud  scarred  face  that 
has  been  hacked  in  some  duel  of  honor.  The  American 
men,  with  a  few  English  additions,  have  their  own  table. 
The  national  beverage  of  Germany  is  everywhere  in  evi- 
dence ;  but  one,  if  he  prefers,  may  drink  his  coffee,  tea, 
seltzer  water,  or  lemonade.  The  music,  with  considerable 
interruptions,  is  continued  for  three  or  four  hours,  and  is 
really  enjoyed  by  a  people  who  live  somewhat  in  the  spirit 
of  Motley's  well-known  saying  :  "  Give  me  the  luxuries  of 
life  and  I  will  do  without  the  necessities." 

A  display  of  fireworks  now  and  then  doubles  the  throng 
at  the  Stadt  Park ;  but  the  characteristic  features  are  the 
music,  the  social  greetings,  the  quiet  lingering  for  hours  at 
the  table,  the  outdoor  freshness,  the  picturesqueness  of  the 
student  life  and  the  procession  of  the  people  as  they  walk 
to  and  fro,  conversing  and  looking  at  one  another  in  a 
good-humored  but  rather  persistent  way.  The  German 
soldiers,  and  especially  the  German  officers,  with  their 
brilliant  uniforms,  are  always  present  in  considerable  num- 
hers.  The  officers  swell  around  and  stare  at  the  pretty 
girls  as  if  they  were  curiosities,  much  in  the  spirit  and 
manner  in  which  many  American  travellers  treat  everything 
in  Europe. 

Mr.  Henry  B.  Fuller,  in  one  of  his  novels,  has  made  his 
travelled  hero  express  astonishment  that  a  metropolis  like 
Chicago  should  be  without  a  promenade,  without  any  social 
organization  for  out-of-door  life,  and  without  a  real  cafe, 
which  he  calls  the  crowning  gem  in  the  coronet  of  civiliza- 
tion. Germany  makes  abundant  provision  for  these  things, 
and  their  general  influence  is  wholesome.  Here  families 
walk  off  together  Sunday  afternoons  and  at  other  times  ;  but 
the    chief  strolling-place    of  Gottingen   is   the   Weender- 


42  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

strasse,  where  on  Sunday,  after  the  morning  church  ser- 
vices, the  students,  soldiers,  and  citizens  walk  up  and  down 
to  greet  each  other  and  to  listen  to  the  orchestra  which 
plays  in  front  of  the  Rathhaus.  This  building  was  erected 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  not  only  as  a  place  for  munici- 
pal legislation,  but  as  a  fortress  of  defence  against  the 
city's  enemies. 

The  almost  continual  appearance  of  soldiers  in  small 
groups  or  marching  by  hundreds  across  the  street ;  the 
great  companies  of  school-children,  boys  and  girls,  each 
with  a  knapsack  full  of  books  on  the  back ;  the  peasant- 
women  with  gayly  embroidered  shawls  over  their  heads  and 
their  short  full  skirts  and  aprons ;  the  tall  slim  poles  sur- 
mounting the  houses  in  process  of  building,  one  of  them 
inevitably  topped  with  a  green  bush  or  wreath,  a  memorial 
of  some  usage  older  than  German  history,  and  a  prophecy 
of  the  feast  the  workmen  are  to  have  when  the  building  is 
completed,  —  these  are  all  elements  of  a  picturesqueness  of 
life  one  misses  in  America. 

I  feel  inclined  at  this  point  to  note  some  of  the  peculiar- 
ities which  an  American  remarks  as  he  watches  such  a  pro- 
cession of  people,  strolling  idly  up  and  down  the  street  of 
a  German  city.  One  of  the  first  things  he  notices  is  the 
prevalence  of  certain  forms  of  polite  behavior.  In  no  other 
country  in  the  world  have  I  seen  the  hats  and  caps  doffed 
so  frequently  and  with  such  a  nourish.  The  German  stu- 
dent, when  he  meets  a  friend  or  parts  from  a  friend,  re- 
moves his  cap  and  bows,  and  repeats  the  ceremony  with 
the  same  friend,  it  may  be,  forty  times  a  day.  The  Ger- 
mans are  a  military  people,  pre-eminently  so ;  but  they 
rarely  keep  step  when  walking  together,  and  have  no  fixed 
rule  about  turning  either  to  the  right  or  to  the  left  when 
they  meet.  You  will  probably  see  more  scarred  faces  in 
a  half-hour's  stroll  on  the  Weender-  strasse  than  in  five 
years  of  perambulation  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  Broadway, 
or  Michigan  Avenue.  Another  feature  of  German,  and 
indeed  of  continental,  life  observable  here  and  very  inter- 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  GERMAN  LIFE.         43 

esting  to  children  is  the  general  use  of  dogs  as  beasts  of 
traction.  I  have  seen  a  peasant  seated  on  a  small  wagon 
in  which  was  confined  a  large  pig,  drawn  triumphantly  into 
town  by  one  huge  dog,  on  whom  the  driver  freely  used  his 
whip.  My  pity  was  divided  between  the  spirit  of  the  man, 
the  fate  of  the  pig,  and  the  labors  of  the  dog  ! 

I  may  as  well  record  here  as  elsewhere  certain  other 
peculiarities  which  add  interest  to  life  in  Germany.  The 
German  student  has  the  habit  of  staring  at  women,  and  es- 
pecially at  American  women,  with  a  freedom  and  continu- 
ousness  which  in  England  and  America  would  be  offensive. 
The  man  here  is  a  superior  being,  living  in  a  world  quite 
above  that  of  woman,  and  he  takes  upon  himself  the  privi- 
lege of  bowing  first  when  he  meets  a  lady  of  his  acquaint- 
ance. This  is  an  act  of  courtesy  which  is  generally 
appreciated,  but  the  American  ladies  in  Germany  are  some- 
what surprised  at  first  when  the  letter-carriers,  truckmen, 
and  clerks  in  stores  and  others  give  them  bows  of  friendly 
recognition.  Last  year  only  one  lady  in  Gottingen  rode 
the  bicycle.  She  was  an  American  girl,  and  made  a  great 
sensation.  Now  nearly  a  dozen  American  and  some  Ger- 
man ladies  ride  through  the  streets.  But  when  the  Ameri- 
can ladies  are  seen  on  their  wheels  in  the  little  villages 
about  Gottingen,  the  children,  geese,  and  dogs  usually  come 
toward  them  with  a  variety  of  noisy  exclamations. 

Every  traveller  in  Germany,  and  certainly  every  Ameri- 
can resident  here,  notes  the  friendly  curiosity  0/  the  people 
in  regard  to  his  private  affairs.  The  government  and  the 
university  learn  and  record  your  name,  residence,  business, 
profession,  birthplace,  birthday,  purposes,  national  alle- 
giance, standing  of  your  parents,  or,  if  they  are  not  living, 
of  other  relatives.  American  girls  are  sometimes  invited 
and  almost  compelled  to  exhibit  their  clothing  to  callers 
whom  they  have  never  seen  before,  and  to  answer  questions 
in  regard  to  the  quality  and  expensiveness  of  every  article 
in  their  wardrobe.  It  may  not  be  agreeable  always  to  be 
asked  how  much  one's  shoes  cost,  or  if  one's  diamond  ring 


44  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

is  real,  and  it  is  certainly  embarrassing  for  American  girls 
to  be  introduced  by  a  German  lady  to  American  students 
and  to  have  her  inquire  of  the  men  if  they  do  not  think 
the  girls'  dresses  are  marvellously  pretty  !  But  one  becomes 
accustomed  to  these  amusing  peculiarities,  understanding 
perfectly  that  no  rudeness  prompted  the  inquiries. 

The  Sunday  after  our  arrival  in  Gottingen,  I  attended 
sendee    in    the   Reformirte  Kirche,    Pastor    Heilman's.     I 
have  been  there  every  Sunday  morning  since  the  first  visit, 
except  on  Palm  Sunday,  which  was  here  Confirmation  Sun- 
day, when  I  attended  the  Albani   Kirche,  Lutheran,   and 
saw  the  confirmation  of  over  a   hundred  boys  and   girls. 
The  Reformed  Church,  in  the  Province  of  Hanover,  is  not 
a  part  of  the  National  Church  Establishment.     In  Prussia 
proper,   that  is,  in  Old  Prussia  as  it  existed   before   1866, 
the    union  of  the  Lutheran  and   Reformed  or   Calvinistic 
churches  was  consummated,  as  is  well  known,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century.     The  Reformirte  Kirche  in  Gottingen 
was  built  in  1751.     It  is  a  very  plain,  box-like  little  struc- 
ture, usually  full,  capable  of  seating  perhaps  four  hundred 
persons,  in  which  the  seats,  facing  in  three  directions,  rise 
in  a  sort  of  rude  amphitheatre.     There  is  an  organ  above 
the  door  of  entrance,  opposite  to  which  is  the  pulpit,   the 
most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  church.     Two  large  pillars 
support  a  gilded  canopy,  at  the  summit  of  which  stands  a 
book  on  which  is   the   word  "  Evangelium."     The  pulpit 
proper  is  about  ten    feet    from    the    floor.      Right  under 
the    pulpit    is    the   communion    table,  on    the  covering  of 
which,    in    large  gilt  letters,  are,  in  German,  the  words  : 
"  Jesus   Christ  the  same  yesterday,   to-day,   and  forever." 
Everything  about  the  church   is  extremely   plain.     There 
are  no  carpets  on  the  floor  and  no  cushions  on  the  seats. 
The   contrast  between   this  church   and  the  luxurious  and 
splendid  interiors  of  many  churches  which  might  be  men- 
tioned in  America,  is  very  striking  and  suggestive.     The 
bareness,  simplicity,  and  almost  poverty  of  Protestant  church 
life  in  Europe  in  the  particulars  just  mentioned  are  still  in 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  GERMAN  LIFE.  45 

harmony  with  the  greater  simplicity  and  economy  of  the 
ways  of  European  peoples. 

As  we  enter  the  door,  the  hymn-book  is  put  into  our 
hands,  or,  rather,  was  given  us  the  first  Sunday ;  now  we 
carry  our  own  book,  and  greatly  enjoy  reading  at  home  the 
deeply  spiritual  German  hymns,  most  of  them  old,  very 
many  reaching  back  to  the  first  of  the  eighteenth  or  the 
middle  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Of  course  some 
of  them  have  a  still  earlier  date.  Was  not  Martin  Luther 
a  great  hymn-writer,  and  did  he  not  teach  the  German 
people  sacred  song  as  well  as  sacred  Scripture?  The 
hymns,  both  in  the  Reformed  and  Lutheran  Kirchengesang- 
bticher,  are  printed  like  prose,  and  often  they  are  very 
long.  One  hymn,  by  Paul  Gerhardt,  has  fifteen  verses  ! 
The  German  hymn-tunes  are  sung  very  slowly,  and  most 
of  our  church  singing  in  America  would  appear  to  church- 
goers here  almost  secular  and  irreverent.  The  hymns  are 
never  announced  and  never  read.  The  numbers  are 
posted,  as  they  ought  to  be  always  in  American  churches. 
A  few  singers  gathered  around  the  organ  begin  the  ser- 
vice with  a  hymn  in  which  all  the  congregation  join. 
After  a  time  the  pastor  enters,  and  stands  with  clasped 
hands  before  the  communion  table.  His  appearance  is  the 
signal  that  the  verse  which  the  congregation  is  singing  is  to 
be  the  last  verse  sung.  During  the  singing  the  congrega- 
tion remain  seated.  During  Pastor  Heilman's  prayer,  which 
he  offers  usually  with  his  eyes  looking  upward,  they  stand. 
He  begins  his  part  of  the  worship  with  a  Scriptural  benedic- 
tion. One  curious  feature  of  the  service  is  that  he  never 
sits  in  the  presence  of  the  congregation.  After  the  prayer 
another  hymn,  usually  a  long  one,  is  slowly  sung,  and  when 
the  pastor  wishes  the  hymn  to  close  he  appears  in  the 
pulpit  above,  with  the  Bible  in  his  hand.  He  then  reads 
the  Scriptures,  and  after  a  brief  prayer  preaches  his  sermon 
without  notes,  closing,  usually,  in  thirty  minutes.  During 
the  hymn  which  follows  the  sermon  he  comes  to  his  original 
place  before  the  communion  table,  and  offers  the  prayer  in 


46  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

which  he  makes  supplication  for  the  Fatherland  and  the 
Kaiser.  He  always  closes  with  the  benediction  :  "  The 
Lord  bless  you  and  keep  you,  the  Lord  make  his  face  to 
shine  upon  you  and  be  gracious  unto  you,  the  Lord  lift  up 
his  countenance  upon  you  and  give  you  peace."  There  is 
a  long,  reverent  pause  at  the  close  of  the  benediction  before 
the  congregation  quietly,  and  without  any  remarks,  leave  the 
church.  At  the  door  are  boxes  to  receive  contributions, 
either  for  the  poor  or  for  the  support  of  the  church.  Many 
in  the  congregation  stand  a  few  moments  before  taking  their 
seats,  in  order  to  bow  the  head  and  offer  a  silent  prayer.  The 
demeanor  of  all  is  reverent.  Very  few,  except  Americans, 
look  at  the  preacher  while  he  is  giving  his  message.  An 
American  school-girl  here  was  instructed  by  her  teacher  not 
to  look  at  the  minister  !  She  claimed,  however,  the  liberty 
of  doing  that  to  which  she  had  been  accustomed.  How  can 
a  man  preach  if  his  congregation  do  not  look  at  him?  I 
once  delivered  a  lecture  before  a  Young  Ladies'  Seminary 
in  And  over,  Massachusetts.  The  young  women  were  in- 
structed to  bring  their  sewing  with  them.  I  felt  as  if  they 
were  paying  no  attention  to  what  I  said,  and  I  would  rather 
declaim  to  a  mob  than  repeat  the  doleful  experience  which 
I  then  had. 

There  may  be  some  peculiarities  of  the  Reformed  Church 
service  here  which  I  have  omitted.  Indeed,  it  is  a  pleasant 
novelty  to  see  soldiers  in  uniform  scattered  through  the 
congregation  and  joining  in  the  hymns  which  their  fathers 
sang  on  the  perilous  edge  of  battle,  through  the  long,  awful 
agony  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  But  whatever  I  omit,  I 
must  at  least  endeavor  to  tell  my  American  readers  of  the 
profound  and  sometimes  overwhelming  impressions  which  I 
have  received  in  these  German  services.  At  ten  o'clock  on 
March  eighth,  I  found  myself  for  the  first  time  in  my  life 
seated  in  a  German  church  of  the  Reformed  Faith.  There 
is  always  an  impressiveness  in  the  first  time.  Who  can  for- 
get his  first  day  in  London,  his  first  visit  to  St.  Peter's,  his 
first  sight  of  the  Pyramids,  his  first  glance  at  the  Pacific 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  GERMAN  LIFE.  47 

Ocean,  his  first  view  of  the  Jungfrau?  Here  I  am  in  the 
Fatherland,  the  ancestral  home  of  my  race,  not  in  a  Lu- 
theran church,  but  in  a  church  which  the  Protestant  Elijah 
made  possible,  a  church  holding  to  the  Calvinistic  faith.  And 
what  are  these  sweet  and  mighty  words  which  all  the  people 
are  singing  and  in  which  I  cannot  help  joining  ?  "  Jesus  Life 
of  my  life,  Jesus  Death  of  my  death,"  "Whatever  God  does 
is  well  done,"  "  Praise  the  Lord,  O  my  Soul,  I  will  praise 
Him  until  death,"  "With  peace  and  joy  in  God's  will  I  go 
hence,"  "  Christ  Thou  Lamb  of  God,  Who  takest  away  the 
sin  of  the  world,  have  pity  on  me."  How  much  more 
sonorous  and  impressive  the  German  words  seem  to  one 
who  hears  them  sung  for  the  first  time  !  Why  is  it  that  the 
tears  start  to  my  eyes,  why  does  my  bosom  swell  and  my 
voice  choke  ?  I  think  that  it  is  partly  the  strange  power  of 
imaginative  association,  the  linking  of  all  these  mighty  gospel 
truths  with  the  solemn  and  glorious  past  out  of  which  they 
have  sprung,  and  partly  the  experiencing  in  a  new  form  the 
sweet  and  immortal  consolations  of  the  word  of  the  Lord.  I 
found  myself  in  a  momentary  ecstasy,  in  which  my  whole 
past  rose  up  before  me.  I  realized  afresh  what  Christ  was, 
and  is,  and  is  to  be.  I  looked  at  the  text  inscribed  in  gold 
on  the  communion  table,  and  said  in  my  heart,  "  There  is  my 
deepest  creed,  my  best  message  to  mankind,  and  the  sub- 
stance of  that  gospel  which  is  the  hope  of  the  world.  The 
Eternal  Christ  is  my  Lord.  Faithful  souls  in  this  company 
of  strangers  trust  in  Him  and  will  never  leave  Him.  Faith- 
ful lips  here  proclaim  Him,  in  this  land  of  learning  and  art 
and  military  glory.  He  lives  and  rules,  and  shall  yet  put 
under  His  feet  all  the  powers  of  evil." 

I  do  not  remember  that  ever,  except  perhaps  at  some  of  the 
vast  conventions  of  our  Christian  Endeavor  societies,  when 
the  billows  of  Christian  song  almost  beat  against  the  skies, 
have  I  been  so  taken  hold  of  by  the  power  of  Christian 
hymns.  The  sermon  which  followed  was  on  the  sufferings 
of  Christ  as  a  fulfilment  of  prophecy ;  a  part  of  His  life's 
plan,  a  part  of  God's  plan  for  every  high  and  noble  life. 


48  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

The  sermons  of  Pastor  Heilman  on  the  following  Sundays 
dealt  largely  with  the  closing  scenes  in  Christ's  life.  He 
led  us  in  his  practical,  earnest,  evangelic  preaching  —  re- 
minding one  of  Dr.  Cuyler — over  the  way  of  the  cross ; 
and  when,  on  the  morning  of  Easter  Sunday,  he  began  his 
part  of  the  service,  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  triumphant  feel- 
ings, not  only  of  his  heart,  but  of  the  Christian  world,  found 
a  trumpet-toned  and  majestic  utterance,  as  with  full  voice 
and  eyes  raised  heavenward  he  cried  out :  "  Now  is  Jesus 
Christ  risen  from  the  dead.  Hallelujah  !  "  Let  this  be  the 
Easter  greeting  which  I  send  to  my  friends  and  readers 
across  the  Atlantic.  I  find  that  I  have  many  things  to 
report  in  regard  to  my  impressions  of  Christian  life  in 
Germany.  Some  of  these  are  almost  depressing  and  even 
disheartening,  but  —  Jesus  Christ  is  risen  from  the  dead. 
He  is  the  Lord  of  Life,  the  ever-living  Redeemer,  whose 
heart  of  love  has  not  changed,  to  whom  all  power  has  been 
given  in  heaven  and  earth,  to  whom  belong  the  eternal 
years,  who  surveys  the  lapses  of  human  minds  from  the 
truth  and  the  departures  of  human  life  from  the  way, 
whether  in  Germany  or  in  America,  with  no  feeling  that  His 
gracious  purposes  are  to  be  ultimately  thwarted.  The 
land  of  Luther  is  yet  to  be  more  completely  His  possession. 
He  shall  yet  wear,  as  Chunder  Sen  prophesied,  the  many- 
jewelled  diadem  of  India.  America  shall  be  his,  and  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  shall  become  the  kingdom  of  the 
Christ.     Hallelujah ! 


CHAPTER   IV. 

PARIS. 

T  N  passing  from  a  quiet  university  town  in  Germany  to 
the  brilliant  and  exciting  life  of  Paris,  one  experiences 
a  change  as  startling  as  can  well  be  imagined.  On  my 
way  to  this  great  capital,  I  stopped  at  Cologne  to  see 
for  the  fifth  time  the  cathedral  which  is  the  greatest 
wonder  of  the  Gothic  world  ;  and  the  marvel  and  mys- 
tery and  majesty  of  this  anthem  in  stone  do  not  diminish. 
Of  all  the  features  of  the  European  landscape  it  is  to  me 
the  most  impressive.  The  president  of  the  Columbian 
Exposition,  looking  from  his  office  in  the  Administration 
Building  in  the  winter  before  the  Fair,  upon  the  "  long, 
imperial  colonnades  "  of  the  Manufactures  Building,  with 
its  snow-covered  roof,  felt  at  times  that  he  was  looking  at 
a  range  of  Alpine  mountains.  This  cathedral  sometimes 
appears  to  me  as  solid  and  as  splendid  as  the  Jungfrau. 
As  I  wandered  at  sunset  through  its  forest  of  columned 
aisles,  it  seemed  to  dwarf  the  spaciousness  of  the  outer 
world.  The  floods  of  golden  and  rosy  light  which  streamed 
into  the  temple  added  a  new  glory  to  the  work  of  man  — 
his  grandest  work  in  northern  Europe  —  in  praise  of  his 
Creator. 

To  the  sympathetic  appreciation  of  the  peculiar  meanings 
of  Gothic  architecture,  the  reading  of  Lowell's  "Cathe- 
dral "  is  a  substantial  help,  as  I  have  often  found.  No 
other  poem  tells  so  completely  the  history  of  the  soul  that 
expressed  in  this  glorious  and  enduring  way  its  conceptions 
of  life  and  of  worship.  "  This  that  never  ends,"  "  climb- 
ing still  and  teaching  fancy  still  to  climb,"  "  graceful,  gro- 

4 


50  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

tesque,"  mingling  fancy  with  history  j  "  imagination's  very 
self  in  stone,"  —  what  a  contrast  it  presents  to  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  Greeks  and  to  the  Greco- Roman  ecclesi- 
astical architecture  of  Italy !  Any  heart  that  loves  the 
Christian  Church  must  feel  within  this  great  cathedral 
what  a  legacy,  common  to  all  Christians,  has  been  handed 
down  to  us.  Most  of  these  prophets,  saints,  scholars, 
martyrs,  kings,  and  preachers,  whose  forms  in  stone  or 
radiant  glass  glorify  this  Gothic  temple,  are  the  spiritual 
ancestors  of  us  all. 

But  this  cathedral  is  the  sublime  monument  of  the  uni- 
fication of  Germany.  It  represents  in  itself  the  long 
checkered  history  of  the  nation  from  the  time  when 
Cologne  was  a  Roman  colony,  down  to  the  completion  of 
the  mighty  structure  in  1882 — for  the  foundations  of  the 
cathedral  rest  on  the  fortifications  of  the  old  Roman  town. 
Most  of  my  readers  know  of  the  sad  delays  in  the  building 
of  this  temple  ;  its  desecration  by  the  French  soldiers  ;  the 
apparent  hopelessness  of  bringing  it  to  completion ;  the 
prayer  of  Wordsworth  that  angels  would  lend  their  help, 
and  the  final  triumph  of  the  German  spirit  in  this  cen- 
tury. The  union  of  the  Fatherland  into  one  nation  and 
the  lifting  heavenward  of  these  twin  spires  within  which 
the  captured  cannon  of  France  ring  out  the  peals  of 
patriotism  and  piety  in  the  colossal  bell,  —  these  went  on 
together.  It  was  six  hundred  and  thirty-two  years  after 
the  first  stone  was  laid  when  the  cathedral  was  finished,  and 
finished,  too,  in  accordance  with  the  plans  of  the  architect 
who  designed  this  all  but  greatest  miracle  in  stone. 

The  building  may  teach  men  and  nations  a  lesson  in 
patience,  while  now,  in  its  finished  majesty,  it  is  the  grand- 
est of  all  the  symbols  of  the  religion  of  aspiration,  of  the 
faith  which,  standing  on  the  earth,  looks  ever  to  the  spiritual 
heavens.  After  saying  farewell  to  the  dear  old  cathedral, 
I  passed  through  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Liege,  and  Namur  in 
order  to  reach  Paris.  The  Belgian  and  French  railways 
are,  in  my  judgment,  not  up  to  the  standard  of  the  Ger- 


PARIS.  5 1 

man.  But  the  journey  to  Paris  was  not  uncomfortable, 
and  a  warm  welcome  awaited  me  from  my  host,  Professor 
G.  Bonet-Maury,  who  will  be  remembered  as  a  delegate 
from  France  to  the  Congress  of  Religions.  He  is  now  one 
of  the  Protestant  faculty  in  the  university.  He  writes  for 
the  "  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  "  and  other  leading  periodi- 
cals, and  is  highly  esteemed  by  many  friends  in  the  literary 
and  religious  circles  of  Paris. 

The  Paris  of  to-day  is  more  brilliant  and  beautiful  than 
was  the  Paris  with  which  I  was  familiar  three  years  after 
the  close  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  At  present  the  city 
is  in  the  throes  of  excitement,  not  so  much  over  the  change 
of  ministry  as  over  the  prospect  of  the  municipal  elections 
in  May.  The  candidates  have  painted  the  town  red,  blue, 
and  yellow.  With  more  than  the  eagerness  and  enterprise 
of  our  city  fathers,  who  are  seeking  for  re-election,  they  have 
placed  their  names  everywhere.  It  is  simply  within  bounds 
to  say  that  nothing  that  could  be  reached  with  the  paste- 
pot  of  the  poster  has  been  spared.  Across  the  way  from 
where  I  am  now  writing,  the  foundations  of  the  Grand  Opera 
House  on  every  side  are  covered  with  these  election  notices. 
I  have  seen  this  disfiguration  on  most  of  the  national  prop- 
erty, on  the  desolate  statue  of  Strasburg  in  the  Place 
de  la  Concorde,  on  the  monuments  to  Voltaire  and  Shake- 
speare, on  the  fountains,  on  the  Louvre.  I  sometimes 
think  that  no  people  are  so  willing  to  disfigure  their  cities 
as  are  Americans,  but  the  French  outdo  even  the  London 
omnibuses. 

But  Paris  cannot  be  spoiled,  especially  Paris  in  the 
springtime,  even  by  candidates.  The  air  has  been  delight- 
fully fresh,  and  the  sunshine  has  been  almost  continuous 
since  my  arrival.  The  suburbs  are  a  wilderness  of  foliage 
and  blossoms.  I  have  spent  a  day  with  friends  in  the 
forest  of  St.  Germain.  We  looked  on  the  vast  and  lovely 
panorama  presented  from  the  grand  terrace ;  we  watched 
the  bicyclists  speeding  happily  over  the  path  so  often 
trodden  by  royal  feet ;  we  gathered  violets  by  the  handful ; 


52  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

we  visited  the  tomb  of  James  II.  of  England  and  shed  no 
tears  over  the  exile,  the  last  king  of  the  ill-fated  Stuarts  ; 
we  returned  by  the  tramway  along  the  banks  of  the  Seine, 
one  of  the  most  charming  drives  in  the  world  ;  we  caught 
a  glimpse  of  Malmaison,  the  home  of  the  Empress  Jose- 
phine, where  she  was  wont  to  receive  the  news  of  Napo- 
leon's victories  ;  we  saw  many  square  miles  of  fresh  spring 
foliage  and  tens  of  thousands  of  trees  which  were  masses  of 
pink  and  white  blossoms,  and  we  watched  great  multitudes 
of  the  French  people  taking  their  outdoor  pleasures  with  a 
simple  directness  of  enjoyment  which  we  in  America  might 
well  imitate. 

The  Parisians  themselves,  though  justly  proud  of  their 
city,  are  very  apt,  if  they  are  men  and  women  of  high 
and  earnest  purposes,  to  speak  rather  despairingly  of  the 
moral  and  religious  condition  of  the  French  metropolis. 
It  is  this  pessimism  which  dampens  the  ardor  of  those  who 
would  like  to  see  the  Exposition  of  1900,  for  which  the 
outward  preparations  are  beginning  to  be  apparent,  made 
the  occasion  of  an  international  religious  festival.  A 
stranger's  impressions,  whether  in  Europe  or  America,  have 
only  a  relative  value,  and  yet  they  may  give  an  approxima- 
tion of  the  truth.  I  had  great  pleasure  in  meeting  several 
times  the  Vicomte  de  Meaux,  one  of  the  foremost  of  the 
progressive  Catholics  of  France.  In  his  book  on  the 
"  Catholic  Church  in  America  "  he  informs  us  that  what 
most  impressed  him  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  Chicago 
was  the  secular  quiet  on  Sunday,  and  the  movement  of 
great  crowds,  from  all  classes  of  the  population,  toward  the 
churches.  And  certainly  Paris  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week  makes  no  such  impression  on  the  American  visitor. 
Seemingly  the  whole  city  is  given  over  to  out-door  recrea- 
tion. Yet  I  am  happy  to  report  that  Sunday  work  has 
been  greatly  diminished  since  I  first  saw  the  city  in  1873. 
The  largest  shops  are  usually  closed.  Both  France  and 
Germany  are  beginning  to  see  the  economical  and  hygienic 
values  of  the  weekly  rest-day. 


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PARIS.  53 

The  vast  increase  of  English,  American,  and  Scotch  signs 
over  the  shops  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Grand  Opera 
House,  indicates  that  Paris  is  becoming  more  and  more 
cosmopolitan.  The  great  encroachments  of  the  English 
language  are  as  apparent  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine  as  on 
the  banks  of  the  Nile  and  the  Ganges.  The  French,  be- 
yond all  other  peoples,  have  learned  how  to  entertain  ;  and 
perhaps  twenty  or  thirty  thousand,  from  the  richer  classes, 
from  all  civilized  and  from  some  half-civilized  peoples  are 
always  found  in  the  hotels  and  pensions  of  the  city.  A 
golden  stream  from  North  and  South  America,  from  Great 
Britain,  Holland,  Russia,  is  pouring  daily  into  the  coffers 
of  France.  Hence  Paris  is  ever  becoming  a  more  expen- 
sive city  to  live  in.  It  is  wonderful  how  easily  the  French 
have  recovered  from  their  misfortunes.  In  spite  of  the 
billions  of  francs  received  by  Germany,  France  is  now 
richer  than  her  great  rival  across  the  Rhine.  And  how 
much  better  prepared  she  is  for  the  great  coming  conflict 
which  nobody  wishes  and  everybody  expects  !  The  Re- 
public has  educated  the  present  generation.  The  school- 
system  of  France,  though  unfortunately  lacking  in  that 
moral  discipline  which  an  ideal  school-system  should  not 
exclude,  is  in  many  respects  equal  to  the  best.  The  French 
army  of  to-day  is  a  vast  improvement,  both  in  equipment 
and  in  administration,  over  the  regiments  of  Bazaine  and 
MacMahon.  Some,  at  least,  of  the  frightful  lessons  of  1870 
have  been  well  learned.  And  Germany  perfectly  under- 
stands that  the  favorable  conditions  under  which  the  war 
of  German  unification  was  carried  to  its  dazzling  successes 
cannot  now  be  repeated.  The  next  struggle  of  these  old- 
time  national  rivals  will  be  the  most  appalling  and  prob- 
ably the  most  wasteful  and  useless  in  history.  Wars 
scarcely  ever  settle  anything.  The  Europe  of  to-day  is 
tightly  bound  by  the  chains  of  the  past,  and  sensible  men 
are  not  able  to  do  that  which  nearly  all  acknowledge  would 
be  for  the  general  advantage.  With  Christian  Europe  an 
armed  camp  of  enemies  awaiting  the  accident  which  shall 


54  «*    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

set  millions  of  men  to  taking  each  other's  lives,  and  causing 
a  rain  of  blood  and  tears  over  the  fairest  regions  of  the 
Old  World,  how  can  we  expect  any  very  swift  conquests  of 
the  gospel  in  Asia?  One  evening  at  the  house  of  an  ex- 
Cabinet  Minister  of  France,  I  ventured  to  ask  him  if  any- 
body in  France  wished  for  war  at  present.  He  said 
"No."  "  Do  you  wish  it  next  year?"  "No."  "  The  year 
after  that?"  "No."  "Do  you  think  that  it  ever  would 
be  a  good  thing?"  "  No."  "Why,  then,  will  it  come?" 
His  shoulders  went  higher  and  higher  —  implying  that 
nations  were  the  slaves  of  circumstances  and  must  take 
what  the  fates  send.  The  aggressive  personality  of  the 
German  Emperor  seemed  to  him  an  important  factor  in 
the  problem.  Some  unforeseen  incident  will  happen,  and 
then  the  vast  butchery  will  begin,  compared  with  which  the 
butcheries  of  Charlemagne  and  Napoleon  were  the  quarrels 
of  school-children. 

Paris  touches  and  thrills  every  sensitive  mind  that  begins 
to  think  backward.  Crossing  the  Pont  de  la  Concorde,  one 
remembers  that  its  foundations  are  built  from  the  stones  of 
the  accursed  Bastile.  What  awful  memories  these  sunken 
blocks  might  send  up  through  the  rushing  blue  waters  of 
the  Seine,  to  sadden  the  hearts  of  the  busy  and  happy 
throngs  who  pour  across  this  bridge,  day  and  night  !  From 
yonder  door  in  one  corner  of  the  garden  of  the  Tuileries, 
King  Louis  Philippe  came  forth  when  the  Revolution  of 
1848  rendered  his  kingship  an  impossibility.  Out  of  that 
same  door,  on  the  downfall  of  the  Empire  of  Napoleon 
III.,  the  Empress  Eugenie  came  in  the  company  of  a 
chivalrous  American  physician. 

As  I  left  the  Oratoire,  where  I  attended  the  anniversary 
meeting  of  the  McAll  Mission  and  heard  of  the  rapid  prog- 
ress which  this  popular  evangelistic  movement  is  still  mak- 
ing, I  stood  for  a  few  minutes  by  the  wonderfully  beautiful 
statue  of  the  great  admiral  who  was  killed  on  the  awful 
night  of  St.  Bartholomew.  Thinking  of  "  good  Coligni's 
hoary  hair  all  dabbled  in  his  blood,"  I  looked  up  above  the 


PARIS.  5  5 

walls  of  the  palace  of  the  Louvre  to  the  full  moon  shining 
in  splendor  upon  the  tower  of  the  church  St.  Germain- 
L'Auxerrois,  from  which  the  signal  for  the  St.  Bartholomew 
massacre  was  given,  three  hundred  and  twenty-four  years  ago. 
I  had  been  speaking  with  a  score  of  French  Protestant  pas- 
tors ;  I  had  been  hearing  the  gospel  sung  by  great  crowds 
of  the  working  people,  who  are  receiving  now  the  simple 
message  of  divine  love,  and  I  could  but  say  that  the  world  is 
growing  better ;  the  days  of  intolerance  are  passing  —  and 
then  I  thought  of  Armenia,  and  said  there  is  daybreak,  but 
not  everywhere.  The  clouds  that  overhang  some  parts  of 
our  planet  are  as  dark  as  those  which  brooded  over  France 
in  the  horrible  days  of  Charles  IX. 

Among  my  most  interesting  experiences  of  late  has  been 
a  visit  to  the  new  Sorbonne,  the  magnificent  hall  of  the 
University  of  France,  which  certainly  deserves  to  be  consid- 
ered, at  least  in  some  respects,  the  foremost  university  in 
the  world.  Delegates  from  the  universities  of  Scotland  have 
been  receiving  delightful  attentions  here  in  Paris  from  the 
professors  in  the  Sorbonne.  A  Franco-Scottish  society,  de- 
signed to  bring  the  university  life  of  the  two  countries  into 
closer  touch,  has  been  organized,  and  I  had  the  privilege 
of  attending  some  of  the  sessions  of  their  first  meeting. 
The  hall  and  stairway  leading  up  to  the  Salle  de  Carnot, 
where  these  university  conferences  were  held,  have  been 
decorated  with  frescos  by  leading  artists  of  to-day,  repre- 
senting memorable  scenes  in  the  history  of  French  science 
and  discovery.  Here  you  may  see  the  figures  of  St.  Louis 
and  Abelard,  Palissy  and  Buffon,  Pascal  and  Cuvier,  Arago 
and  Guizot,  and  scores  besides.  We  in  America  are  rather 
partial  to  France,  but  most  of  us  are  not  fully  aware  of  the 
vast  contributions  which  the  French  people  have  made  to 
many  branches  of  science. 

In  the  great  new  hall  of  the  Sorbonne  is  perhaps  the 
most  famous  of  all  the  frescos  of  Puvis  de  Chavannes.  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  last  week  the  decorations  which 
this  most  eminent  of  living  artists  is  about  sending  to  the 


56  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

new  Public  Library  in  Boston.  But,  entering  the  Hall  of 
Carnot,  which  is  a  magnificent  room  intended  for  the  meet- 
ing of  the  faculties  of  the  University  and  for  social  recep- 
tions, I  found  myself  seated  on  the  left  of  the  rector  of 
the  University,  M.  Gr£ard,  at  a  table  which  formed  a  huge 
ellipse.  The  subject  for  discussion  was  the  place  of  Greek 
in  modern  education.  About  seventy  representatives  of 
Scotch  and  French  learning  sat  about  the  table,  and  on 
two  raised  platforms  facing  each  other  were  Professor  Briel, 
president  of  the  day,  and  the  reader  for  the  day,  the  dis- 
tinguished Hellenist,  Professor  Croiset.  His  French  lecture 
in  defence  of  Greek  studies  against  the  modern  objections 
to  them  was  lucid  and  extremely  able,  meeting  the  general 
approval  both  of  the  French  and  Scotch  professors.  It  was 
interesting  and  humiliating  to  note  how  well  some  of  the 
Scotch  teachers  made  their  addresses  in  French.  Lord 
Reay,  of  Edinburgh,  deserves  little  credit  for  his  exception- 
ally good  French,  however,  since  he  learned  it  in  childhood 
in  the  home  of  his  father,  who  was  Prime  Minister  of  Hol- 
land. Inheriting  afterward  a  Scotch  peerage,  he  came 
to  reside  in  Scotland,  and  has  taken  great  interest  in  the 
Franco-Scottish  society.  He  was  much  pleased  to  learn  of 
my  present  mission  to  Paris  and  my  future  mission  to  India. 
Not  only  is  he  a  liberal  in  politics,  but  he  is  not  narrow  in 
his  theology. 

The  visit  of  the  Scotch  professors  was  terminated  by  a 
banquet  in  the  Sorbonne,  to  which  I  was  kindly  invited. 
I  can  think  of  nothing  as  an  achievement  of  art  in  one 
special  line  that  is  more  delightful  than  a  Parisian  banquet. 
Happily  ladies  were  present,  and  the  peculiar  charm  of 
French  courtesy  was  signally  illustrated.  Nearly  a  hundred 
persons  sat  down  to  a  dinner  such  as  Paris  only  can  give. 
I  doubt  if  any  other  people  than  the  French  could  have 
draped  the  English,  Scotch,  and  French  flags  as  gracefully 
as  they  were  hung  on  this  occasion.  A  band  of  the  Sixth 
Regiment  of  Infantry  gave  us  the  music,  pleasantly  subdued 
by  distance  ;  and  Jules  Simon,  the  veteran  French  states- 


PARIS.  57 

man,  was  the  courteous  presiding  officer  in  the  speeches 
which  followed  the  banquet.  Most  graciously  he  proposed 
the  health  of  the  Queen,  and  of  course  everybody  rose  as 
the  French  band  struck  up  the  national  air  of  England. 
Afterward  Jules  Simon  pronounced  a  beautiful  address  in 
praise  of  noble  womanhood,  speaking  with  great  feeling 
and  felicity  of  the  fidelity,  courage,  and  heroism  of  French 
women,  from  the  days  of  Jeanne  d'Arc  down  to  the  recent 
revolutions  in  France.  Lord  Reay  toasted  the  President  of 
the  French  Republic,  and  we  all  rose  to  the  stirring  strains 
of  "  La  Marseillaise."  The  French  may  well  vie  with  the 
Germans  in  the  martial  and  thrilling  qualities  of  their  na- 
tional hymn.  Lord  Reay  then  gave  a  pleasant  historical 
resumC  of  the  many  intimate  relations  between  Scotland 
and  France.  There  is  a  Scotch  college  in  Paris  still  stand- 
ing, which  most  of  the  delegates  visited.  Wallace  and 
Bruce  could  speak  French.  The  ceremonies  used  in  the 
Scotch  universities  are  French.  At  the  close  of  the  ban- 
quet each  guest  was  given  an  engraving  of  Jeanne  d'Arc 
surrounded  by  her  Scotch  guards. 

After  Lord  Reay  had  spoken,  La  Sorbonne  was  toasted, 
and  the  speaker  was  the  accomplished,  adroit,  and  attrac- 
tive Bourgeois,  who  at  that  time  was  the  Prime  Minister  of 
France,  the  President  of  the  Cabinet.  His  downfall  within 
a  few  days  was  not  expected  even  by  himself.  Why  should 
there  not  be  established  between  our  American  universities 
and  La  Sorbonne  such  interesting  intimacies  as  those  I 
have  been  describing?  I  am  assured  that  the  University  of 
France  would  welcome  delegates  from  our  American  insti- 
tutions, and  it  might  be  discovered  that  there  were  links 
between  the  two  republics  as  vital  as  those  which  bind  the 
Scottish  and  French  peoples. 

The  friends  of  religious  toleration  in  Paris  honored  me 
with  a  reception,  at  which  the  hosts  were  Colonel  and 
Madame  Calmard  and  their  three  daughters,  —  all  accom- 
plished and  charming  people.  The  Calmards  belong  to 
the  family  of  Pascal,  and  are  earnest  Catholics.     They  are 


58  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

quite  familiar  with  American  literature.  Nothing  has  sur- 
prised me  more  than  the  acquaintance  which  I  have  dis- 
covered among  French  ladies  with  much  that  is  best  in 
American  letters.  Emerson,  Longfellow,  Higginson,  Mrs. 
Stovve,  George  W.  Cable,  and  Edgar  Allan  Poe  are  very 
familiar  names.  I  was  requested  to  tell  some  American 
stories.  Reluctantly  I  began.  The  first  venerable  chestnut 
exploded  like  dynamite  in  this  new  circle  !  I  continued 
more  cheerfully.  I  drew  on  my  memory  and  told  tales  of 
Peekskill.  I  related  that  a  famous  American  was  showing 
another  compatriot  the  glory  of  the  Cologne  Cathedral. 
His  friend  said  to  him,  "  It  is  large,  but  it  took  them  six 
hundred  years  to  build  it.  Chicago  would  have  built  it  in 
six  months."  I  told  of  the  American  who  would  not  ad- 
mire St.  Peter's  at  Rome  :  "  They  can't  fill  it  more  than 
once  in  a  generation ;  Niagara  Falls  would  fill  it  in  five 
minutes."  The  next  morning  my  host  was  relating  to  his 
wife  the  successes  of  my  anecdotage.  He  retold  to  her 
the  stories,  and  gave  me  the  only  fun  I  had  in  them  when  he 
said  seriously  :  "  These  American  stories  are  not  mythical, 
they  are  genuine  and  authentic,  for  they  were  told  by 
the  leading  lawyer  of  New  York  City,  Mr.  Chauncey  M. 
Depew  !  " 

Among  those  who  were  present  at  the  reception  were 
Baron  de  Schickler,  perhaps  the  leading  Protestant  in  Paris, 
a  man  of  great  wealth  and  benevolence,  whose  home  over- 
looking the  Place  Vendome  is  one  of  the  most  attractive 
I  have  seen ;  Reinach,  the  distinguished  Jewish  scholar, 
whose  Hellenic  attainments  are  such  that  he  is  likely  to 
become  a  member  of  the  French  Academy ;  the  Vicomte 
de  Meaux,  the  son-in-law  of  the  famous  Montalembert,  a 
very  charming  and  liberal-minded  Catholic  gentleman,  who 
has  visited  our  country  and  is  a  friend  of  Cardinal  Gibbons, 
of  Archbishop  Ireland,  and  of  Bishop  Keane  ;  Zadoc  Kahn, 
the  chief  rabbi  of  France,  who  is  deeply  interested  in  the 
work  of  religious  pacification  ;  Professor  Albert  ReVille,  the 
editor  of  the  "  Review  of  the  History  of  Religions,"  and 


PARIS.  59 

perhaps  the  foremost  scholar  in  France  in  the  department 
of  Comparative  Religion  j  the  Reverend  Mr.  Roberti,  one 
of  the  preachers  at  the  Oratoire,  whose  sermon  on  Christ's 
treatment  of  doubt,  to  which  I  recently  listened,  gave  me 
the  impression  that  he  has  all  the  best  qualities  of  French 
eloquence  ;  and  Frederick  Passy,  the  eminent  philanthropist, 
devoted  to  international  arbitration  and  other  good  causes. 


CHAPTER  V. 

paris   {continued) . 

•  TDARIS  the  beautiful  —  and  now  in  the  May  flowers  and 
sunshine,  the  supremely  beautiful  —  is  to  me  Paris  the 
hospitable  and  entertaining. 

Walking  one  morning  from  my  home  on  the  Rue  de  Lille 
by  the  gilded  gates  of  the  Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor 
and  by  the  splendid  ruins  of  the  Cours  des  Comtes,  now 
inhabited  by  ten  thousand  birds,  I  came  to  the  Solferino 
Bridge,  by  which  I  crossed  over  the  river  into  the  garden  of 
the  Tuileries.  A  short  walk  through  the  Place  du  Car- 
rousel brought  me  to  the  Louvre,  where  in  the  halls  of 
Renaissance  sculptures  I  sought  and  soon  found  the  new 
treasure  which  has  recently  been  added  to  these  almost  end- 
less collections.  It  is  a  Madonna  with  the  child,  in  wood, 
painted  and  gilded,  and  is  deemed  the  most  important 
acquisition  made  by  the  department  since  the  celebrated 
bas-relief  of  the  Virgin,  painted  and  gilded  terra-cotta, 
brought  from  Florence  in  1881.  These  two  monuments 
face  each  other.  The  new  sculpture  belongs  to  the  period 
which  preceded  and  prepared  for  the  coming  of  Michael 
Angelo,  —  probably  to  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
It  is  large,  noble,  dignified,  but  interested  me  far  less  than 
did  the  "  Fettered  Slaves  "  standing  near  by,  —  the  famous 
work  of  Michael  Angelo  himself,  and  designed  as  a  part  of 
the  great  monument  to  Pope  Julius  II. 

After  breakfast,  at  half-past  eleven  o'clock,  my  host,  Pro- 
fessor Bonet- Maury,  escorted  me  to  the  Institute  of  France, 
on  the  Quai  Voltaire,  where  I  had  the  pleasure  of  being 
presented  to  the  Academy  of  Moral  and  Political  Sciences. 


PARIS.  6 1 

In  the  absence  of  Jules  Simon  I  was  introduced  by  the  dis- 
tinguished philosopher  and  archaeologist,  M.  Ravaisson- 
Mollieu,  now  in  his  eighty-third  year.  About  thirty  of  the 
forty  members  sat  around  the  elliptical  table,  which  repre- 
sents the  highest  honor  to  which  men  of  science  and  litera- 
ture in  France  can  aspire.  The  Academy  which  I  saw  is 
one  of  five  that  together  make  up  the  famous  Institute  of 
France,  concerning  which  Professor  Max  Miiller  said  at  its 
centenary  last  October :  "  Other  nations  have  tried,  but 
tried  in  vain,  to  equal  it."  The  total  membership  of  these 
five  academies  is  two  hundred  and  twenty-six. 

What  ordinarily  impressed  me  in  the  members  of  the 
Institute  whom  I  met  was  their  simple  cordiality  of  manner 
and  their  venerable  years.  The  laurels  in  France  encircle 
gray  heads.  Among  the  members  of  the  Academy  to  whom 
I  was  presented  let  me  mention,  besides  the  President  and 
Jules  Simon,  Charles  Waddington  ;  Maurice  Block,  the  econ- 
omist ;  E.  Levasseur,  also  an  economist  and  delegate  from 
the  French  government  to  the  Chicago  Congresses ;  Anatole 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  the  historian,  whose  great  work  on  Russia 
has  recently  been  translated  into  English  ;  Frederick  Passy, 
the  venerable  President  of  the  International  Peace  League, 
who  enriched  me  with  many  pamphlets  that  he  had  written, 
including  one  on  the  Parliament  of  Religions  ;  George  Picot, 
the  historian  of  the  States  General  of  France,  a  former 
Cabinet  Minister,  a  Catholic  layman  of  great  benevolence, 
breadth  of  mind,  and  spiritual  enthusiasm;  and  Arthur 
Desjardins,  the  President  of  the  League  against  Atheism. 
To  me  as  interesting  as  the  living  faces  upon  which  I 
looked  were  the  busts  of  the  dead.  On  either  side  of  the 
magnificent  portrait  of  Cardinal  Richelieu  I  saw  the  marble 
features  of  such  men,  the  true  glories  of  France,  as  Lamar- 
tine  and  Guizot,  De  Tocqueville  and  Thiers. 

We  had  expected  to  hear  a  paper  on  the  rights  of  nations 
involved  in  the  Chino-Japanese  war,  by  Arthur  Desjardins, 
Advocate-General  of  the  Court  of  Cassation.  He  had  told 
us  that  he  would  invite  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  embassies 


62  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

to  be  present.  Fine  and  scholarly  appeared  the  Japanese 
representatives,  who  were  seated  by  the  polite  Desjardins 
upon  a  cushioned  bench  on  our  left.  After  a  while  the  tall 
figure  of  the  Chinese  representative  appeared  at  the  door. 
As  no  one  seemed  to  observe  him,  we  beckoned  him  to  a 
seat  between  us.  This  was  noticed  by  Desjardins,  who 
hastily  came  up  to  him  and  said,  — 

"  Please  come  and  take  a  seat  with  your  compatriots  over 
there." 

Inerrancy  does  not  belong  even  to  the  members  of  the 
French  Institute.  The  solemn  face  of  the  Chinese  minister 
was  drawn  down  into  greater  solemnity,  partly  because  his 
nationality  was  mistaken,  and  partly  because  he  must  sit 
beside  the  representatives  of  the  younger,  smaller,  and  yet 
victorious  people. 

We  could  not  linger  to  hear  Desjardins'  whole  paper,  and 
somewhat  reluctantly  we  left  the  Institute  for  other  scenes. 
I  left  also  my  companion  and  drove  off,  armed  with  a  ticket 
of  admission,  toward  the  chief  of  the  sixty  entrances  to  the 
catacombs,  those  vast  subterranean  labyrinths,  going  back 
to  Roman  times,  from  whose  treasury  of  rock  Paris  has  been 
built,  and  whose  long  galleries  have  been  decorated  with 
the  bones  of  her  dead.  Lighted  candle  in  hand,  I  went 
with  a  company  of  about  one  hundred  on  this  subterranean 
pilgrimage,  lasting  an  hour. 

To  me  the  most  interesting  feature  of  the  journey  was 
not  the  almost  interminable  walls  of  human  skulls  decorat- 
ing miles  of  thigh-bones  and  other  osteological  fragments  of 
humanity,  nor  the  chapels  here  and  there  ;  it  was  the  great 
assortment  of  sepulchral  inscriptions  toward  which  we 
pressed  our  candles  while  eager  eyes  read  what  seemed  to 
be  the  messages  of  the  dead  to  the  living.  The  words 
written  on  these  mortuary  walls  during  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury were  of  a  philosophical  cast,  and  might  have  come 
from  Diderot  or  Franklin.  There  were  solemn  exhorta- 
tions to  respect  the  tomb,  and  thereby  respect  the  dead. 
But  what  seemed  to  be  the   later  inscriptions   were  very 


PARIS.  63 

largely  sentences  from  the  Psalms  and  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment. A  walk  through  these  catacombs  makes  death  seem 
a  greater  fact  than  would  be  suggested  by  a  ride  over  the 
field  of  Waterloo  or  Sedan.  Most  of  my  companions  were 
in  a  merry  mood,  and  a  company  of  French  students  kept 
up  their  loud  singing  of  very  lively  airs  through  much  of 
our  journey. 

Leaving  without  reluctance  the  quarries,  the  sepulchres, 
and  the  darkness  made  visible,  I  drove  to  that  monument 
of  municipal  splendor,  the  new  Hotel  de  Ville,  the  town 
hall  of  the  French  capital,  passing  en  route  the  portals  and 
towers  of  Notre  Dame.  This  church  grows  to  me  more 
beautiful  with  repeated  observations.  It  has  not  the  mas- 
siveness  of  many  other  cathedrals,  but  there  are  points  of 
view  from  which  the  sculptures  of  the  facade  appear  as 
rich,  delicate,  and  noble  as  any  other  work  of  the  Gothic 
chisel.  But  while  Notre  Dame  carries  one  back  to  the 
twelfth  century,  the  Hotel  de  Ville  belongs  to  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth.  It  is  one  of  the  most  copiously  adorned 
structures  of  the  French  Renaissance  style  to  be  found  in  the 
world.  The  history  of  France  may  be  read  in  its  innumer- 
able statues.  All  about  it  is  so  fresh  and  bright  that  it  is 
difficult  to  summon  before  the  imagination  the  terrible 
scenes  enacted  on  this  spot  during  three  revolutions. 
There  was  but  a  small  party  viewing  the  Hotel  de  Ville 
that  afternoon.  The  guide  inquired  of  me  if  any  per- 
son were  present  who  could  speak  English.  I  modestly 
claimed  that  ability,  and  was  asked  to  translate  the  words 
of  our  conductor  for  the  benefit  of  an  Englishman  who  had 
just  come  from  Australia.  Accordingly  I  soon  found  my- 
self taking  the  American's  proper  place,  —  at  the  head  of 
the  procession. 

Returning  to  the  house  of  Professor  Bonet-Maury,  we  drove 
together  to  the  old  Palais  de  l'lndustrie,  which  was  built 
for  the  first  great  exposition  in  Paris  in  1855.  It  is  soon  to 
be  torn  down  as  a  preparation  for  the  exposition  of  1900. 
Here  the  Salon  of  the  Champs  Elys6es,  which  I  had  already 


64  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

glanced  at,  was  attracting  an  immense  crowd,  literally  from 
all  the  world.  We  met  many  interesting  people  as  we 
looked  at  a  few  of  the  thirty-nine  hundred  and  two  ob- 
jects of  art  named  in  the  catalogue.  A  number  of  por- 
traits drew  our  special  attention,  and  among  them  were 
a  few  Napoleon  pictures  :  "  His  Farewell  to  France,"  by 
Guillon ;  "After  the  Charge  at  Hanau,  1813,"  by  Char- 
tier;  "The  Eagles,"  representing  the  return  from  Russia, 
by  Rouffet,  and  another  called  "  Captif,"  by  Dawant, — 
picturing  the  Emperor  seated  by  the  cradle  of  his  young 
son,  holding  the  baby's  hand,  while  the  attendants  at  the 
door  look  on  in  delighted  wonder  to  see  the  great  world- 
conqueror  subdued  by  a  child. 

There  are  now  two  salons  called  the  Salon  Champ  de 
Mars  and  the  Salon  Champs  Elysees.  The  first  opened  this 
year  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  April,  and  I  had  the  privilege  of 
visiting  it  on  Varnishing  Day,  when  those  who  have  invita- 
tions go  for  the  purpose  not  so  much  of  looking  at  the 
pictures  as  of  looking  at  each  other.  The  old  Salon  in  the 
Palais  de  lTndustrie  on  the  Champs  Elysees  has  a  brilliant 
rival  in  the  annual  exhibition  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts  in  the  Trocadero,  on  the  Champ  de  Mars.  The 
old  Salon  is  supposed  to  be  more  classical  and  conservative. 
The  new  Salon  is  thought  to  be  more  original  and  to  give  a 
warmer  welcome  to  novelties.  It  certainly  eclipses  every 
other  exhibition  in  the  novelties  of  its  English,  as  shown  in 
the  illustrated  catalogue,  where  the  French  name  of  the 
picture  is  kindly  translated.  The  following  specimens  may 
appear  impossibilities,  but  ocular  demonstration  will  show 
that  they  have  been  deliberately  printed  :  — 

"Jeune  Fille  en  Blanc"  is  translated  "  Joung  girl  in 
wight "  ;  "  Femme  qui  se  chauffe,"  "  Woman  to  the  fire  "  ; 
"  Merchandes  de  Pots,"  "  Pot's  trades  women  "  5  "  Prin- 
temps  mi,"  "Spring  nude  fijimes " ;  "La  Pens£e  qui 
s'£veille,"  "The  taught  awehening  "  ;  "Labour  d'automne 
en  Provence,"  "  Falls  labouring  in  provence  "  ;  "Jeune  Bai- 
gneuse,"  "  Young  batting  girl  "  ;  "  Portrait  Cycliste,"  "  Por- 


PARIS.  65 

trait  of  a  cycles  "  ;  "  En  Automne,"  "  In  falls  "  ;  "  Interieur 
Bourgeois,"  "  Aristocratic  interior  " ;  "  Etendeuse  de 
Linge,"  "  Goods  hangers  "  ;  Le  Jardin  des  Oliviers,"  "  The 
Garden  of  Eden."  This  last  work  is  so  realistic  a  pic- 
ture of  the  scene  in  Gethsemane  that  it  scarcely  needs 
any  title  at  all.  For  so  scholarly  and  careful  a  nation  as 
the  French  to  pour  such  ignorant  contempt  on  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  a  literary  audacity  which  will  surely  bring 
its  own  punishment. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  record  many  of  the  impressions 
which  came  to  me  from  two  visits  at  the  Champ  de  Mars 
Salon.  The  artist  whose  name  is  now  more  frequently  on 
American  lips  than  any  other  is  Puvis  de  Chavannes. 

Of  course  the  masterpiece  of  the  new  Salon  is  Dagnan- 
Bouveret's  "  Last  Supper."  It  has  been  savagely  attacked 
and  enthusiastically  eulogized.  It  needs  no  defence.  It  is 
its  own  supreme  and  splendid  vindication.  Unless  one 
goes  early,  it  is  difficult  to  get  a  good  sight  of  it,  the  crowds 
before  it  are  so  dense,  and  all  seem  to  be  fascinated  and 
even  awestruck  by  the  strange  loveliness  of  the  Saviour's 
head,  and  by  the  flood  of  mellow  light  which  appears  to 
come  from  His  whole  form.  The  radiance  of  His  person 
shines  through  the  glass  of  wine  which  He  holds  in  His 
hand,  as  He  stands  in  the  midst  of  the  sitting  Apostles. 
These  are  not  looking  at  us,  as  if  on  exhibition,  but 
are  absorbed  in  the  supernatural  splendor  of  the  Master. 
The  face  of  John  and  the  face  of  Peter  are  beautiful  and 
strong  after  a  new  type.  The  whole  picture  is  bathed  in  a 
strange  roseate  illumination,  softened  and  spiritualized. 
Perhaps  the  work  cannot  altogether  be  justified  from  the 
standpoint  of  realism  or  of  pure  technique,  but,  in  the 
midst  of  the  other  canvases  brilliant  with  the  life  of  to- 
day, it  was  a  joy  and  uplift  to  the  soul  to  behold  this 
representation  of  Him  who  was  and  is  the  Light  of  the 
World. 

In  the  same  room  a  smaller  and  very  different  crowd  is 
always  seen  before  B^raud's  "  La  PousseV'  which  represents 

5 


66  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

a  brilliant  banquet  broken  in  upon  by  armed  wretches.  It 
is  not  a  reminiscence  of  the  French  Revolution,  but  rather 
a  terrible  prophecy  of  that  fiercer  and  deadlier  horror  which 
some  of  the  modern  apostles  of  anarchy  are  predicting  and 
threatening.  In  B^raud's  picture  we  see  the  frightened 
guests  at  the  banquet  hiding  themselves  from  the  incoming 
mob.  But  one  man,  while  protecting  a  terrified  woman, 
lifts  his  glass  to  the  success  of  the  invaders.  Beraud  will 
be  remembered  as  the  author  of  the  sensational  picture  of 
Christ  crucified  on  Montmartre,  where  the  crucifixion  is 
modernized  and  localized  in  Paris.  In  this  present  ex- 
hibition he  has  a  Christ  crowned  with  thorns,  which  is  a 
terrific  bit  of  realism. 

The  impressionists  are  in  tremendous  evidence  at  both 
Salons.  Some  of  their  pictures  are  simply  incredible,  and 
appear  to  have  been  conceived  and  executed  merely  with 
the  purpose  of  producing  the  most  startling  sensation. 
Many  of  them  appear  to  have  no  relation  whatever  to 
nature  except  as  it  might  appear  to  a  man  in  delirium 
tremens.  Some  of  their  works  have  a  strength  of  rude, 
brilliant  color  which  makes  them  distinctly  visible  three 
hundred  feet  away.  The  carrying  power  of  these  Krupp- 
gun  pictures  is  immense. 

And  yet  several  of  the  artists  of  the  modern  impression- 
ist school,  and  notably  Louis  Deschamps,  are  masters  in 
the  art  of  portraying  the  human  face,  not  through  minute- 
ness of  detail  but  by  the  firm,  bold,  and  yet  delicate  repre- 
sentation of  the  essential  characteristics.  A  few  touches,  in 
painting  as  in  poetry,  may,  when  executed  by  the  hand  of 
a  master,  tell  the  whole  story  of  human  joy  and  sorrow 
more  effectively  and  more  pleasurably  than  could  elaborate 
description.  And  yet  with  many  of  the  young  Frenchmen 
who  are  seeking  fame  by  the  new  methods  of  art  one  is  re- 
minded of  the  caitiff  to  whom  the  knight  cried  out : 
"  Craven,  in  the  name  of  chivalry,  draw,  draw  "  —  and 
then  added  charitably,  "  Stay,  perhaps  he  cannot ;  per- 
chance he  is  an  impressionist." 


PARIS.  67 

The  conventional  and  still  popular  style  of  portraiture  is 
fairly  well  represented  by  Rondel's  picture  of  Monsieur 
Felix  Faure,  the  able  and  highly  respected  President  of  the 
French  Republic.  The  presence  of  the  French  govern- 
ment is  felt  in  these  annual  exhibitions  in  many  ways. 
Some  of  the  more  striking  sculptures  and  pictures  already 
bear  the  inscription,  "  Commanded  by  the  state."  Every 
administration  seeks  to  gain  favor  by  the  patronage  of  art, 
and  through  this  the  permanent  collections  of  the  French 
provincial  cities  are  greatly  enriched. 

He  who  goes  to  either  Salon  on  Varnishing  Day  will  see 
the  official  and  literary  and  other  notabilities  of  France. 
One  afternoon  the  ex-Cabinet  Ministers  were  so  thick  in  a 
certain  hall  of  the  Palace  of  Industry  that  my  companion 
felt  that  we  had  wandered  into  a  political  graveyard.  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  a  conversation  with  an  ex-minister  who 
seemed  rather  happy  in  his  fallen  state.  Monsieur  Berthe- 
lot,  one  of  the  foremost  chemists  of  France,  had  a  brief  and 
unfortunate  career  at  the  head  of  foreign  affairs,  and  when 
the  Bourgeois  ministry  fell  a  week  ago  he  said,  with  a  sigh 
of  relief:  "  Now  I  can  go  back  to  my  experiments."  Ber- 
thelot  is  a  courageous  positivist,  and  when  two  years  since 
Brunetiere,  the  brilliant  editor  of  the  "  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes,"  startled  France  by  declaring  that  science  had 
failed  in  its  promises  and  that  the  nation  could  be  saved 
only  by  the  Roman  Church,  Berthelot  denounced  most 
vigorously  the  champion  of  the  papacy,  and  added  another 
voice  of  protest  to  the  chorus  of  hostile  clamors  which 
Brunetiere  had  awakened.  His  successor  in  the  foreign 
office,  Monsieur  Hanotaux,  was  also  his  predecessor.  He 
has  recently  been  awarded  the  prize  by  the  French  Acad- 
emy for  his  work  on  Richelieu,  and,  being  a  great  admirer 
of  that  astute  Cardinal,  he  had  ordered  a  grand  portrait  of 
the  ecclesiastical  statesman.  This,  however,  was  not  finished 
and  brought  into  the  office  until  Berthelot  had  succeeded 
him ;  and  Berthelot,  looking  up  one  morning  and  seeing 
this  new  picture  and  not  recognizing  his  Eminence,  ex- 


68  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

pressed  his  hatred  of  religion  and  of  all  ecclesiastics  by 
calling  out  indignantly,  — 

"  Take  that Abbe  away  !  " 

Professor  Bonet-Maury  was  not  a  little  amused  by  the 
politeness  and  interest  with  which  this  unbeliever  conversed 
with  me  on  the  present  religious  condition  of  France  and 
the  prospects  of  a  Congress  of  Religions  in  1900. 

After  leaving  the  Salon  we  called  upon  the  Reverend 
Ernest  Fontanes,  President  of  the  Consistory  of  Havre, 
a  warm  friend  of  the  late  Dean  Stanley.  He  takes  a  deep 
interest  in  the  work  of  bringing  religious  men  into  closer 
fellowship.  At  the  banquet  given  me  at  the  Palais  Royal 
a  few  evenings  ago,  he  had  most  courteously  proposed 
my  health  as  representing  "the  country  of  hope,"  the 
country  which  brought  the  spirit  of  hope  to  the  older  na- 
tions. Among  his  friends  is  the  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts  of 
London,  now  spending  a  few  months  at  the  Hotel  du  Rhin, 
looking  out  on  the  beautiful  Place  and  Column  Vendome. 

O 

By  special  invitation  we  accompanied  him  to  the  apart- 
ments of  this  most  famous  of  English  philanthropists.  She 
is  now  in  her  eighty-second  year,  but  takes  a  keen  interest 
in  the  affairs  of  the  world  which  she  has  done  so  much  to 
bless.  My  mission  to  India,  a  work  founded  by  another 
Christian  woman  who  loves  the  whole  world,  had  attracted 
her  attention,  and  she  wished  to  learn  more  about  it.  She 
was  especially  pleased  to  hear  that  the  Buddhist  leader, 
Dharmapala,  had  written  me  that  if  Christians  would  add 
to  their  programme  humanity  to  animals  he  would  be  glad 
to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  preaching  the  gospel  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  happens  that  the  Baroness  is  a 
chief  patron  of  the  English  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Animals,  and  she  wished  me  to  carry  to  India 
documents  which  show  that  Christians  are  becoming  more 
humane  to  the  lower  creation.  This  distinguished  woman, 
whose  income  is  said  to  be  one  thousand  pounds  a  day,  has 
a  simplicity  of  speech  and  dress  as  captivating  as  it  is  re- 
markable.    My  French  friends  could  not  forget  that   she 


paris.  6g 

might  have  been  the  Empress  of  France  had  she  accepted 
the  offer  of  marriage  from  Prince  Louis  Napoleon. 

From  the  Hotel  du  Rhin  we  walked  out  into  the  bright 
evening  sunshine,  and,  parting  with  our  eloquent  friend 
Fontanes,  we  crossed  the  Place  de  la  Concorde,  which  a 
witty  lady  of  Paris  told  me  was  the  best  place  for  the  meet- 
ing of  the  next  Congress  of  Religions  !  A  few  friends 
had  been  invited  to  dine  with  us.  Among  them  were  the 
son  and  daughter  of  my  host,  a  brilliant  French  lawyer  who 
was  a  candidate  for  the  municipal  council ;  Madame  Cal- 
mard  ;  her  accomplished  daughter,  Mademoiselle  Calmard  ; 
and  the  well-known  Abbe  Felix  Klein  of  the  Catholic  Insti- 
tute in  Paris,  the  editor  of  Archbishop  Ireland's  discourses 
on  the  "  Church  and  the  Century  "  —  a  book  which  has 
already  passed  through  five  editions.  I  can  imagine  noth- 
ing more  enlivening  than  a  small  dinner  of  this  sort  in 
Paris,  where  everybody  talks  to  everybody  else.  In  five  min- 
utes the  merry  din  becomes  continuous  and  lasts  for  hours. 
Far  into  the  evening  we  sat  and  discussed  the  affairs  of 
the  two  Republics  and  the  two  Churches.  It  is  the  thought 
of  men  like  Abbe"  Klein,  Abbe"  Naudet,  the  editor  of  "  Le 
Monde,"  and  many  others,  including  the  Archbishop  of  Abri, 
that  if  the  Catholic  church  is  to  command  the  present  and 
future  of  France  and  of  Europe  it  must  come  into  closer 
sympathy  with  the  modern  world.  I  suppose  a  majority  of 
the  thoughtful  men  in  France  think  with  Paul  Bourget  that 
the  future  of  old  Europe  is  dark  with  fearful  storms,  and 
that  modern  society  is  approaching  a  monstrous  cataclysm. 
It  is  but  natural  that  enlightened  minds  trained  in  the 
Church  of  Rome  and  hospitable  to  American  ideas,  should 
believe  that  religion  embodied  in  the  old  church,  adjusting 
itself  to  new  circumstances  and  representing  both  authority 
and  liberty,  is  the  chief  hope  of  imperiled  Europe. 

The  American  Chapel  at  the  Rue  de  Berri  has  been  reno- 
vated since  my  brief  ministry  there  in  1873.  It  has  a 
decidedly  American  look,  and  as  I  took  my  seat  in  one  of 
the  last  pews  and  glanced  over  the  heads  of  the  congrega- 


70  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

tion  fresh  with  the  glory  of  Parisian  millinery,  I  could  but 
think,  "  This  is  perhaps  the  best  dressed  congregation  in 
the  world."  But  such  light  thoughts  were  dispelled  by  Dr. 
Thurber's  earnest  sermon  from  the  words  "  As  an  eagle 
stirreth  up  her  nest."  It  was  a  comforting,  practical  dis- 
course on  the  wisdom  of  God  in  shaking  us  out  of  our  old 
surroundings,  in  forcing  us  into  new  circumstances,  to 
develop  our  untried  powers,  and  to  realize  our  higher 
mental  and  spiritual  possibilities.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
preaching  once  more  in  the  Chapel,  but  I  found  no  one  of 
my  old  parishioners  of  1873,  excepting  Sidney  Armstrong, 
the  New  York  publisher,  who  was  then  quite  a  young  man 
and  who  became  my  travelling  companion  through  Italy. 
John  Wanamaker  was  present,  full  of  interest  in  my  Indian 
mission ;  and  the  Reverend  E.  W.  Hitchcock,  for  eleven 
years  the  pastor  of  the  American  Chapel.  Professor  Bonet- 
Maury,  who  was  at  this  service,  said  that  by  closing  his 
eyes  he  would  have  thought  himself  once  more  in  America  ! 

I  visited  the  other  day  the  Huguenot  Library,  to  which 
Baron  de  Schickler  has  generously  contributed.  It  has  a 
valuable  collection  of  thirty  thousand  volumes,  which  seemed 
to  me  not  merely  a  memorial  of  what  Protestantism  has  suf- 
fered in  France,  but  also  a  prophecy  of  what  Biblical  Chris- 
tianity, adapting  itself  to  the  new  times,  will  yet  achieve.  I 
have  spent  one  morning  at  the  Protestant  Seminary  of  the 
university,  the  school  which  after  the  Franco-Prussian  War 
was  removed  from  Strasbourg  to  Paris,  and  I  found  among 
the  learned  professors  there  an  eager  desire  that  something 
effective  should  be  done  to  abate  theological  and  churchly 
antagonisms  in  France,  and  to  bring  about  a  friendlier 
mutual  understanding.  I  have  breakfasted  at  the  home 
of  the  Reverend  M.  Lacheret  with  a  number  of  other 
orthodox  Protestant  ministers,  and  found  among  them  a 
general  sympathy  with  the  special  causes  which  have  com- 
manded my  efforts. 

I  have  recently  spent  a  delightful  morning  visiting  the 
Musee  Guimet,   the  only  extensive   Museum  of  Religions 


PARIS.  yi 

in  Europe.  It  bears  the  name  of  its  founder,  a  Lyons 
merchant  of  great  intelligence,  who  has  given  to  Paris 
his  unique  and  imposing  collection  of  the  gods,  cultus 
implements  and  objects  connected  with  the  rituals  of 
Buddhism,  Hinduism,  Confucianism,  Shintoism,  and  the 
ancient  Olympianism.  Much  can  be  learned  in  a  Museum 
of  Religions,  but  I  confess  that  my  strongest  feeling,  as 
I  looked  upon  these  memorials  of  imperfect  or  perverted 
faiths,  was  a  desire  to  do  something  to  deliver  humanity 
from  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  bondage  of  which  such  a 
museum  is  the  symbol. 

My  chief  purpose  in  coming  to  Paris  was  to  fulfil  an  en- 
gagement made  by  the  organizing  committee  of  the  Con- 
gress of  Religions  of  1900.  It  was  with  great  trepidation 
that  I  looked  forward  to  making  my  maiden  speech  in  the 
French  tongue.  Thanks  to  the  interest  felt  by  the  organ- 
izing committee,  and  their  careful  preparations,  the  Hall  of 
the  Learned  Societies,  where  the  conference  was  to  be  held, 
was  thronged.  I  am  told  that  the  best  representatives  of 
the  University  of  France  and  of  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain 
were  gathered  at  the  conference.  The  president  of'  the 
evening  was  Anatole  Leroy-Beaulieu,  a  member  of  the  In- 
stitute of  France,  and  the  distinguished  author  of  the  "  Em- 
pire of  the  Czars  and  the  Russians,"  and  "  Israel  among 
the  Nations."  He  is  a  Liberal  Catholic,  the  head  of  an 
Anti-Socialistic  League,  and  has  held  many  conferences  in 
this  same  hall,  where  he  has  often  been  hooted  by  the  noisy 
socialistic  students  of  the  University.  It  was  greatly  feared 
that  his  presidency  would  be  the  occasion  of  similar  inter- 
ruptions, and  orders  were  given  to  admit  no  one  to  the 
hall  excepting  those  who  had  received  tickets  from  the 
committee.  On  the  platform  were  the  Archimandrite  of 
the  Greek  Church  of  Paris,  Porphurios  Logothetis,  formerly 
a  monk  of  Mount  Sinai,  a  man  of  much  ability,  who  is  likely 
to  become  Patriarch  in  the  Greek  Church ;  M.  Frederic 
Passy ;  M.  Reinach,  the  Hellenist ;  M.  Picot,  the  economist ; 
Professor  Albert  Reville  ;  the  Vicomte  de  Meaux ;  Baron  de 


72  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Schickler;  Abbe  Charbonnel,  and  several  other  prominent 
leaders  of  French  thought  and  life.  In  the  audience  were 
eight  abb£s  and  many  leading  Catholic  laymen,  besides  a 
number  of  French  literati  and  French  Protestant  pastors. 
Zadoc  Kahn  was  also  present. 

I  have  rarely  had  so  strange  an  experience  as  befell  me 
at  this  conference.  The  words  of  a  foreign  language  which 
one  reads  from  a  manuscript  do  not  mean  very  much  to  the 
speaker,  and  I  was  surprised,  after  a  few  sentences,  to  find 
that  I  was  touching  sensitive  chords  in  the  minds  of  my 
hearers.  The  responses  were  immediate  and  sympathetic, 
and  soon  put  me  at  ease  with  myself.  I  endeavored  to  set 
forth  the  greatness  of  religion  in  the  spiritual  history  of 
mankind,  and  to  show  that  the  various  manifestations  of 
sincere  religious  faith  should  be  treated  with  sympathetic 
regard,  for  even  in  error  there  are  some  rays  of  truth.  I 
tried  to  show  that  the  progress  of  mankind  was  toward,  and 
not  away,  from  religion ;  and  also  that  in  the  future,  far 
more  than  it  had  been  in  the  past,  religion  might  become  a 
means  of  drawing  men  into  closer  fellowship.  The  Chris- 
tian faith,  at  least,  aimed  at  universalism  ;  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  as  founded  by  Jesus  Christ  out-reaches  national 
limitations,  and  Christ  Himself  has  nothing  local  or  pro- 
vincial about  Him.  Furthermore,  those  of  us  who  believe 
that  in  Christianity  are  the  elements  of  a  complete,  final, 
and  universal  faith  lose  nothing,  but  gain  much,  in  the 
propagandism  so  dear  to  us,  by  the  spirit  of  tolerance,  of 
charity,  of  fraternity.  It  is  wise  and  right  to  acknowledge 
whatever  of  truth  we  discover  in  the  faith  of  others,  and 
whatever  of  good  we  discern  in  their  lives.  This  of  course 
was  naturally  illustrated  by  the  spirit  and  purposes  of  the 
World's  First  Parliament  of  Religions.  It  was  necessary  to 
touch  very  briefly  and  carefully  upon  the  Paris  Congress  of 
1900.  The  wisdom  of  France  must  decide  whether  such  a 
Congress  is  wise,  and  under  what  conditions  it  should  be 
held.  Undoubtedly  there  are  grave  obstacles  in  the  way ; 
but  France  has  an  immense   and  glorious  opportunity  of 


PARIS. 


73 


showing  to  the  world  the  supreme  importance  of  the  things 
of  the  spirit.  In  my  closing  paragraph  I  said  that  France 
could  erect  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine  a  nobler  statue  than 
that  which  stands  at  the  entrance  to  the  port  of  New  York, 
if  in  1900,  in  some  great  hall  of  the  French  capital,  the 
believers  in  the  Divine  Fatherhood  and  in  human  fraternity 
gathered  from  all  the  world,  should  meet  in  friendly  fellow- 
ship under  a  banner  inscribed  with  these  words,  which  might 
well  be  the  motto  of  the  twentieth  century :  "  Down  with 
persecution  and  intolerance,  whether  in  the  name  of  reli- 
gion or  in  the  name  of  liberty  !  Peace  and  universal  fra- 
ternity among  all  men,  in  the  name  of  the  God  of  Mercy 
and  of  Love." 

In  his  opening  address,  Monsieur  Beaulieu  had  said,  in 
the  words  of  a  Greek  priest,  "  The  fences  which  separate  the 
members  of  the  Christian  Church  are  very  high,  but,  thank 
God,  they  are  not  so  high  as  heaven."  After  my  address, 
Professor  Bonet-Maury  was  called  upon  to  render  the  thanks 
of  the  conference,  and  he  took  occasion  to  speak  of  my 
journey  to  India  and  the  importance  of  this  Christian  en- 
terprise. Then  I  was  called  upon  to  reply  to  all  this  kind- 
ness in  my  own  language.  Oh  the  comfort  of  the  mother 
tongue  !  I  shall  take  with  me  so  long  as  I  live  the  memory 
of  this  scene.  A  week  later  I  addressed  the  Franco- 
English  Guild  of  Women  on  the  India  Lectureship  and 
its  connection  with  the  Religious  Parliament. 

But  the  crowning  expression  of  interest,  unless  I  except 
a  conference  held  at  the  house  of  Madame  Siegfried,  was 
the  banquet  given  me  last  week  at  the  Palais  Royal.  At 
this  love-feast  there  were  present,  among  others :  Abbe 
Charbonnel ;  Professors  Albert  and  Jean  Reville ;  Anatole 
Leroy-Beaulieu ;  George  Poignant,  formerly  tutor  of  Prince 
Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte ;  Frank  Puaux,  editor  of  the 
"  Revue  Chretienne  ;  "  Quesnerie,  Professor  of  English  at  the 
Lycee  St.  Louis  ;  Gaufres,  President  of  the  League  for  the 
Improvement  of  Public  Morals ;  a  Russian  philanthropist, 
N.   Nepluyeff,  of  Moscow ;  Theodore  Reinach ;  Planchon, 


74  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Director  of  one  of  the  chief  scientific  schools  of  the  univer- 
sity ;  Roberty,  of  the  Oratoire ;  the  Reverend  Charles 
Wagner,  the  author  of  "  Youth "  and  of  several  other 
books  which  have  had  a  wide  circulation  in  English  and 
other  languages  ;  the  Reverend  E.  Fontanes ;  the  Reverend 
M.  Soderblom,  a  Swedish  pastor;  and  Professor  Bonet- 
Maury. 

In  my  remarks  I  endeavored  to  show  that  the  wonderful 
hopefulness  and  national  vigor  which  had  carried  France 
through  her  recent  troubles  indicated  a  temper  which 
was  adequate  to  the  highest  achievements  of  the  spirit. 
After  my  remarks  Anatole  Beaulieu  proposed  a  toast  to 
the  Congress  of  Religions  of  1900.  Reinach,  the  liberal- 
minded  and  scholarly  Jew,  declared  his  sympathy  with  the 
Christian  remarks  which  had  been  made,  and  said  that  the 
word  "  Christian,"  broadly  interpreted,  had  no  terrors  for 
him.  Albert  ReVille  said  with  feeling  that  the  meeting  so 
harmonious  and  so  loving  of  men  of  such  various  faiths  and 
nations  was  a  splendid  prophecy  of  the  death  of  intolerance  ; 
and  with  great  eloquence  he  cried  out :  "  We  may  not  be 
many,  but  we  are  in  the  stream  of  the  world's  greater  and 
better  future."  Fontanes  expressed  with  much  beauty  of 
language  the  gratitude  which  France  felt  to  the  American 
Republic,  because  that  Republic,  through  its  recent  spiritual 
triumphs,  had  breathed  over  the  older  nation  a  new  and 
better  hope.  Frank  Puaux  affirmed  that  all  that  is  best  in 
France  will  respond  to  a  religion  of  aspiration,  of  hope,  and 
of  brotherhood. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

A    LITTLE    TOUR    IN    FRANCE. 

"DARIS  is  not  France.  Such  is  the  heretical  opinion  with 
-*■  which  I  begin  an  account  of  two  most  interesting 
days.  It  is  impossible  for  any  city,  however  splendid  and 
comprehensive,  however  national  and  unique,  to  reproduce 
all  the  features  and  to  symbolize  the  total  life  of  a  great 
people.  The  French  kings  Louis  XII.,  Francis  I.,  Henry 
III.,  Henry  of  Navarre,  Louis  XI II.,  Louis  XIV.,  never 
acted  on  the  theory  that  Paris  was  France.  They  loved  to 
leave  the  brilliant  and  troubled  life  of  the  capital,  to  build 
palace  after  palace  amid  the  forests,  vineyards,  and  wheat- 
fields  of  the  pleasant  land  over  which  they  ruled.  American 
travellers  find  Paris  so  fascinating  that  they  rob  themselves 
of  many  quiet  pleasures,  of  many  days  of  purer  air  and 
sweeter  sunshine  which  might  be  easily  enjoyed  within  a 
few  hours  of  the  Boulevard  des  Italiens  and  the  Rue  de 
Rivoli. 

I  shall  always  be  grateful  for  the  invitation  of  some 
cultivated  American  friends,  who  have  an  aptitude  for  find- 
ing the  selecter  pleasures  of  life  —  that  called  me  into 
Touraine,  to  the  banks  of  the  Loire,  and  to  the  delightful  dis- 
coveries —  to  me  they  were  such  —  of  the  chateaux  of 
Chambord  and  Blois.  Henry  James  has  made  the  few 
foreigners  knowing  enough  to  seek  the  Loire  region  his 
debtors  by  describing  his  "  Little  Tour  in  France,"  which, 
though  lacking  the  pungent  and  peculiar  wit  of  Heine  and 
the  exuberant  imagination  and  sentiment  of  some  other 
travellers,  possesses  a  multitude  of  charms  that  make  it  a 


j6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

useful  and  pleasant  companion.  It  is  a  book,  however, 
which  I  would  advise  my  friends  to  read  after  they  have 
completed  their  journeys.  Otherwise  they  may  be  in  peril 
of  looking  at  landscapes  and  chateaux  almost  constantly 
through  Henry  James's  spectacles.  I  shall  not  moderate 
my  enthusiasm  for  the  beauty  and  varied  attractions  of  my 
much  briefer  tour  in  France  on  account  of  any  fear  lest 
this  letter  should  be  deemed  extravagant  in  its  praise.  My 
only  fear  is,  rather,  lest  my  strongest  statements  will  be 
unable  to  drag  any  of  my  readers  who  are  yet  to  be  travellers 
out  of  the  charmed  circle  of  Paris. 

The  fast  train  took  me  in  two  hours  to  Blois  The  line 
passes  through  Orleans,  a  name  calling  to  the  imagination 
a  form  which,  next  to  Napoleon's,  is  still  the  most  magical 
and  potent  before  the  mind  of  France.  I  may  have  been 
misled  by  the  fresh  verdure  of  the  fields,  the  delicious  cool- 
ness of  the  soft  May  breezes,  and  the  splendor  of  the  spring 
sunshine  ;  but  the  country  through  which  I  passed  in  the 
first  part  of  this  brief  journey  seemed  almost  as  beautiful 
as  England.  Arriving  in  Blois,  a  picturesque  little  city  of 
twenty-five  thousand  people,  built  upon  a  hill,  with  its 
crooked  and  narrow  streets,  its  old  houses,  many  of  them 
curiously  sculptured,  inviting  every  sketcher  and  photogra- 
pher to  pause  before  them,  with  its  market  filled  with 
figures  toward  which  Millet  has  made  us  feel  friendly  and 
fraternal ;  with  its  lofty  churches  and  dominating  cathedral, 
and,  above  all,  with  the  almost  unequalled  attraction  of  its 
historic  chateau,  wherein  you  may  follow  the  splendid  and 
sanguinary  history  of  France  for  three  centuries,  —  one  feels 
immediately  that  he  has  escaped  from  those  modern  glories 
with  which  Paris  has  hidden  so  much  of  her  antiquity. 

The  Grand  Hotel  of  Blois,  which  is  small  and  antique, 
furnished,  during  my  brief  sojourn,  that  kind  of  familiar  hos- 
pitality which,  as  Henry  James  says,  "  a  few  weeks  spent  in 
the  French  provinces  teaches  you  to  regard  as  the  highest 
attainable  form  of  accommodation."  I  am  a  man  of  spa- 
cious and  not  excessively  fastidious  appetite,  but  still  I  have 


A   LITTLE    TOUR  IN  FRANCE.  J  J 

learned  to  appreciate  those  artistic  and  skilful  touches  by 
which  the  legitimate  pleasures  which  come  with  the  satisfac- 
tion of  hunger  may  be  considerably  enhanced.  The  twelve 
o'clock  breakfast,  with  its  ten  courses,  ending  with  the  de- 
licious pots  of  sweetened  cream,  fit  for  the  tables  of  Olym- 
pus, reminded  me  of  that  favorite  after-dinner  story  in  which 
we  read  that  the  post-prandial  orator  exclaimed  :  "  I  feel 
like  Martin  Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms  :  '  God  help  me,  I 
can  take  no  other  course.'  "  Such  a  breakfast  was  a  beau- 
tiful preparation  for  a  twelve- mile  drive  to  the  Chateau  de 
Chambord,  which  my  friends  very  judiciously  decided  to 
show  me  before  I  saw  the  richer  and  more  interesting  at- 
tractions of  the  Chateau  de  Blois. 

We  crossed  the  Loire,  —  a  noble  stream  flowing  down  to 
the  sea,  which  it  reaches  by  the  city  of  Nantes,  that  great 
red  mark  in  the  history  of  France.  Nantes  once  meant  to 
the  Huguenots  protection  and  toleration.  It  came  to  mean 
cruel  oppression  and  exile  from  a  land  which  has  been  more 
passionately  loved  than  any  other  beneath  the  sun.  A 
Catholic  scholar  of  world-wide  fame  said  to  me  the  other 
day  in  Paris  :  "  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  was 
a  great  misfortune  to  France." 

"Yes,"  I  said,  "but  it  gave  much  of  the  best  blood  of 
France  to  Holland,  England,  and  America." 

"To  South  Africa,  also,"  he  added,  "where  the  best 
blood  among  the  Boers  is  Huguenot." 

The  Loire  lures  the  imagination  down  its  broad  stream  to 
the  great  Castle  of  Amboise,  where  Mary  Stuart  of  Scotland 
spent  the  early  days  of  her  first  marriage,  —  a  castle  whose 
balcony  was  once  grim  with  the  heads  of  Huguenots,  —  to 
Tours,  the  charming  centre  of  the  garden  of  France,  and 
one  of  the  chief  landmarks  of  human  history,  for  near  it 
Christendom  was  saved  from  the  Moslem  by  the  iron  arm 
of  Charles  the  Hammer ;  and  it  flows  smilingly  on  through 
"  the  land  of  Rabelais,  of  Descartes,  of  Balzac."  It  is  rather 
hard,  as  one  looks  at  the  placid  and  sun-kissed  bosom  of 
the  Loire,  to  realize  what  dark  secrets  are  hidden  in  its 


78  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

depths.     Crossing  the   river,  I   saw  how  picturesquely  the 
temple-crowned  Blois  is  seated  on  her  gentle  hills. 

The  drive  to  Chambord  was  delightful,  partly  because  the 
company  was  spirited,  and  the  horses  good,  and  the  air  as 
brilliant  as  the  life  of  the  French  Renaissance  which  made 
the  atmosphere  of  our  thoughts,  and  partly  because  the 
scenery  was  not  too  interesting.  The  region  might  have 
been  Illinois.  But  what  may  have  been  lacking  in  the  land- 
scape was  more  than  supplied  by  the  strange  magnificence 
of  the  wondrous  building  which  lifts  its  many  towers  and 
spires  and  chimneys  above  the  broad  plain  in  the  great 
park  of  Chambord.  The  chateau  is  enormous,  and  it  sug- 
gests the  almost  Roman  splendor  and  might  of  the  French 
kings  who  could  build  such  summer-houses.  The  present 
building  was  begun  by  Francis  I.,  and  the  striking  sala- 
mander of  his  coat  of  arms  appears  almost  everywhere,  a 
part  of  the  innumerable  ornaments  which  decorate  the  halls 
of  the  vast  interior.  We  were  conducted  through  the  spa- 
cious and  empty  apartments ;  we  mounted  the  celebrated 
grand  staircase  with  its  mysterious  double  flight,  which  per- 
mits people  to  ascend  and  descend  at  the  same  time  without 
meeting ;  we  kept  company  in  imagination  with  the  Em- 
peror Charles  V.,  whom  his  great  rival,  Francis  I.,  once  en- 
tertained here ;  we  thought  of  the  brilliant  fetes  which 
Louis  XIV.  celebrated  with  his  court  in  the  four  hundred 
and  forty  rooms  of  the  chateau ;  we  were  reminded  that 
Moliere's  "  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme  "  had  its  first  represen- 
tation here  under  the  direction  of  the  great  dramatist ;  we 
remembered  that  the  exiled  King  Stanislaus  of  Poland  tried 
to  comfort  himself  within  these  walls,  and  recalled  that 
Marshal  Saxe,  the  great  soldier,  strove  in  vain  to  be  happy 
with  this  splendid  gift  from  his  king. 

One  cannot  walk  for  an  hour  in  France  without  striking 
the  French  Revolution.  That  supreme  event  divided  the 
land  into  convenient  parcels  for  the  peasants,  and  swept  like  a 
tornado  through  all  the  palaces  of  the  kings.  Chambord  and 
Blois  were  despoiled.     We  ascended  to  the  roof  at  the  top  of 


A   LITTLE    TOUR  IN  FRANCE.  79 

the  great  staircase,  and  saw  the  lantern  that  has  been  called 
"  the  bristling  crown  of  Chambord,"  still  "  tipped  with  a  huge 
fleur-de-lis  in  stone,"  which  the  fierce  hand  of  the  Revolution 
did  not  reach.  Napoleon  established  here  one  of  the  cohorts 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  the  Corsican  soldier  tossed  this 
miracle  of  the  Bourbon  kings  as  if  it  were  a  toy  into  the  lap 
of  his  marshal,  Berthier,  Prince  of  Wagram.  After  much 
trouble  and  litigation  the  chateau  came  into  the  possession 
of  the  heir  of  Louis  Philippe,  who  thereupon  called  himself 
Comte  de  Chambord.  From  this  truly  royal  but  dismantled 
barrack  he  sent  out  his  proclamation  to  the  French  people, 
commanding  them  to  become  his  loyal  subjects  under  the 
white  flag  of  the  Bourbon  lilies,  surrendering  forever  the 
tricolor  of  the  Revolution,  the  Empire,  and  of  the  Repub- 
lic !     But  French  kings  are  expensive  luxuries  of  the  past. 

Bringing  away  a  few  souvenirs  from  this  pathetic  memorial 
of  the  old  regime,  we  drove  back  to  Blois,  and  found  that 
the  dinner  at  the  little  hotel  fulfilled  the  brilliant  promise  of 
the  breakfast.  Tasso,  in  his  "Jerusalem  Delivered,"  has 
praised  the  inhabitants  of  Blois,  whom  he  had  come  to 
know  and  appreciate.  Perhaps  the  dinners  were  as  good 
and  the  beds  as  comfortable  in  his  day  as  in  ours  !  The 
next  morning  we  gave  some  time  to  the  town,  which  was 
the  birthplace  of  Louis  XIL,  and  of  a  still  greater  man, 
whose  statue  adorns  the  top  of  the  monumental  staircase, 
Denis  Papin,  the  inventor  of  the  first  steam-engine.  But 
I  went  to  Blois  to  see  the  chateau,  the  most  interesting 
non-ecclesiastical  building  which  I  have  visited  for  many  a 
day.  It  has  been  restored  rigorously  and  splendidly,  and  is 
now  a  historical  monument  of  the  state,  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  city  of  Blois.  You  may  read  its  full  and  fasci- 
nating story,  I  believe,  in  Walter  Larned's  "  Chateaux  and 
Cathedrals  of  France." 

He  who  knows  the  Chateau  of  Blois  knows  the  brilliant 
and  bloody  course  of  French  history  from  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  was  built  the  most  ancient  part  now  stand- 
ing, which  contains  the  Hall  of  the  States  General.     It  was 


80  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

in  this  hall  that  the  tricolor  flag  of  France  was  made  the 
national  banner.  The  white  represents  royalty,  the  prin- 
ciple of  secular  authority ;  the  blue  symbolizes  the  Church, 
the  sanctions  of  religion ;  the  red  stands  for  the  Third  Estate, 
the  people,  and  for  the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality. 
Democracy,  run  mad  and  become  lawless  and  atheistic,  de- 
mands a  red  flag  from  which  the  white  and  blue  have  been 
removed.  The  tricolor  of  France  is  the  flag  of  safe  and 
noble  progress,  and  it  gained  a  new  meaning  for  some  of  us 
as  we  stood  within  the  Castle  of  Blois. 

Through  the  portal  of  the  beautiful  facade  of  Louis  XII., 
with  its  arches,  pinnacles,  and  royal  devices,  we  enter  the 
court,  and  begin  to  understand  the  fascinations,  not  only  of 
this  wing  of  Louis  XII.,  but  also  of  the  even  more  superb 
construction  on  our  right,  which  bears  the  name  of  Francis  I. 
Before  we  are  conducted  by  our  archaeological  guide  through 
this  part  of  the  chateau,  we  enter  the  little  chapel  where 
Henry  of  Navarre  was  married  to  Marguerite  of  Valois. 
Every  memorial  of  the  B£arnese  prince  is  interesting,  and 
we  are  glad  of  anything  to  contrast  with  the  horrors  which 
darken  the  wing  of  the  chateau  built  by  Francis  I.,  which, 
architecturally,  "  is  the  most  joyous  utterance  of  the  French 
Renaissance."  The  celebrated  winding  staircase,  covered 
over  with  delicate  work  of  the  chisel,  has  been  copied  in 
the  court  of  the  new  Hotel  de  Ville  in  Paris.  Before  we 
enter  the  wing  of  Francis  I.,  and  follow  our  guide  through 
its  many  gilded  rooms,  we  cast  a  rather  contemptuous  look 
on  the  western  facade  built  for  Gaston  d'Orleans,  brother  of 
Louis  XIII.,  by  the  celebrated  architect  Mansard.  It  is 
lucky  that  the  prince  was  unable  to  carry  out  his  plan  of 
demolishing  the  older  and  better  parts  of  the  castle,  and 
replacing  them  with  the  stiffness  —  I  feel  like  saying  the 
stupidity  —  of  Mansard. 

The  presiding  genius  of  the  wing  of  Francis  I.  is  not 
that  monarch,  although  we  see  his  salamander  in  many  a 
room,  but  the  dark  and  bloody  Catherine  de  M^dicis,  the 
wife  of  one  king  of  France  and  the  mother  of  three  others. 


A   LITTLE    TOUR  IN  FRANCE.  8 1 

Among  the  brilliant  features  of  these  not  very  spacious 
apartments  are  the  decorated  chimney-pieces,  where  the 
royal  devices  are  plentiful.  But  if  one  is  sensitive  to  the 
past,  no  brilliancy  of  decoration  can  make  him  forget  that 
the  dark  spirits  of  cruel  bigotry  and  murder  have  occupied 
these  halls.  In  one  of  them  Catherine  de  Medicis  and 
her  princely  accomplices  planned  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew. And  here,  after  that  most  awful  night  in  the 
history  of  France,  far  more  awful  than  the  most  devilish 
scenes  of  the  French  Revolution,  Henry  III.,  many  of  the 
chief  events  of  whose  fifteen  years  of  unworthy  kingship 
occurred  within  this  chateau,  his  favorite  residence,  ordered 
the  assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  and  of  his  Cardinal 
brother.  We  could  follow  the  footsteps  of  the  assassins, 
the  desperate  struggle  and  flight  of  the  great  and  prosper- 
ous Duke ;  we  could  see,  with  the  mind's  eye,  the  place 
where  he  died,  and  could  watch  Henry  III.  as  he  prayed 
while  the  assassination  was  going  on,  or  as  he  peered 
through  the  door  to  see  its  consummation.  We  entered 
the  chapel  of  Catherine  de  Medicis,  and  then,  in  a  room 
near  by,  our  guide  touched  a  spring  which  opened  a  secret 
panel  behind  which  the  gentle  Catherine  kept  and  mixed 
her  poisons  !  We  saw  the  room  where  she  died,  not  with- 
out remorse.  Is  it  not  one  of  the  anomalies  of  history 
that  Joan  of  Arc  perished  at  the  stake,  while  this  she-wolf 
of  Italy  breathed  her  last  in  bed  ! 

WTe  walked  out  on  Catherine's  balcony,  bright  with  color, 
through  one  of  the  deep-niched  windows  to  the  west  facade 
of  the  chateau.  It  was  good  to  get  a  breath  of  fresh  air. 
Standing  here  and  looking  downward,  we  gain  an  idea 
of  the  massive  foundations  of  this  high  and  noble  building. 
Here  we  look  out  over  one  part  of  the  little  historic  city, 
and  here  we  let  our  fancies  fly  swiftly  back  through  the  cen- 
turies to  the  time  when  the  Roman  soldiers  planted  their 
camp  and  the  eagles  of  Rome  on  the  site  of  this  chateau. 
And  then  we  see  Joan  of  Arc,  with  her  troops,  leaving  the 
town  of  Blois  to  rescue  Orleans.     We  see  the   great  Em- 


82  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

peror  Charles  V.  coming  down  yonder  street  to  rest  in  the 
castle.  Many  a  royal  procession  follows  through  the  years. 
And  at  last  a  greater  Emperor,  returning  from  Spain,  which 
he  had  made  his  province,  comes  hither,  with  the  Empress 
Josephine,  to  look  at  these  then  desolated  walls.  And  yon- 
der, just  before  the  downfall  of  the  modern  Charlemagne, 
the  bravest  of  the  brave  marshals  reviews  the  old  Imperial 
Guard,  which  could  die  but  never  surrender. 

As  I  took  the  swift  train  to  Paris  that  afternoon,  regret- 
ting that  I  could  not  accompany  my  kind  friends  to  the 
Chateau  of  Amboise,  my  mind  was  filled  with  two  thoughts. 
First,  the  infinite  picturesqueness  of  French  history,  —  a  pic- 
turesqueness  of  which  Conan  Doyle  has  made  such  good 
use  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  Brigadier  Gerard."  The  other 
thought  is  one  which  stabs  the  mind  in  Blois  as  deeply  as 
anywhere  else  in  Europe  ;  namely,  the  horrible  part  which 
religion  has  sometimes  played  in  the  drama  of  human  his- 
tory. Out  of  the  shadows,  however,  the  world  sweeps  into 
a  brighter  day,  and  that  evening  at  Mr.  Clarence  Eddy's 
brilliant  dinner-table,  on  the  Rue  des  Capucines  in  Paris,  I 
realized  the  contrast  between  the  fierce  conflicts  of  the  six- 
teenth century  and  the  milder  struggles  of  the  nineteenth, 
as  I  heard  an  earnest  American  lady  exclaiming  in  the  ear 
of  a  sceptical  British  doctor,  "  I  tell  you,  sir,  prohibition 
in  Iowa  has  been  a  grand  success  !  " 

At  the  close  of  my  stay  in  Paris  I  was  glad  to  climb  six 
flights  of  stairs  to  the  apartments  overlooking  the  Place  de 
Madeleine  in  order  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  Grand  Old 
Man  of  France,  —  one  of  the  chief  founders  of  the  Republic, 
one  of  the  glories  of  the  French  Institute,  —  Jules  Simon. 
He  was,  I  believe,  in  his  eighty-third  year,  but  he  still 
spoke  on  many  public  occasions.  We  found  him  very 
much  depressed  over  the  death,  a  few  hours  before,  of  his 
illustrious  friend  Leon  Say.  He  had  already  committed 
himself  in  favor  of  the  Paris  Parliament  of  1900,  but  he 
conversed  with  most  interest  in  regard  to  my  coming 
visit    as    a  Christian    preacher    to    India.      After   we    had 


A   LITTLE    TOUR  LN  FRANCE.  83 

talked  together  of  the  anxiety  of  Buddhists  that  Chris- 
tians should  be  more  humane  to  animals,  he  gave  an 
account  of  a  Catholic  missionary  from  one  of  the  French 
possessions  in  Africa,  who  had  recently  called  upon  him  to 
enlist  his  interest  in  saving  black  babies  from  the  cannibals. 
A  fat  baby  boy  in  this  missionary's  parish  is  in  extreme 
peril.  Whenever  the  missionary  heard  that  such  a  tidbit 
was  about  to  be  eaten,  he  would  endeavor  to  save  the  child 
by  the  offer  of  money,  and  now  fifty  francs  are  needed  to 
rescue  each  black  child.  Jules  Simon  and  his  wife  had 
helped  in  this  good  work,  and  it  seemed  to  the  venerable 
statesman  that  he  might  postpone  any  deep  anxiety  over 
the  animals  and  confine  his  attentions  to  the  sorrows  and 
perils  of  black  humanity  exposed  to  cannibalism  ! 

As  I  walked  out  of  the  rooms  of  his  library,  warmly 
walled  with  books,  he  accompanied  me  to  the  door,  paus- 
ing for  a  few  moments  to  look  at  the  bust  of  his  great  friend 
Thiers.  Then,  still  thinking  and  speaking  of  my  journey 
around  the  world,  which  to  a  Frenchman  and  to  an  old 
man,  seemed  quite  as  much  of  an  undertaking  as  the  ad- 
venture of  Columbus,  he  said,  with  the  pleasantest  of  smiles, 
implying  however  that  he  was  hoping  for  the  almost 
impossible,  — 

"  Bon  voyage  !  :' 

And  among  the  many  happy  recollections  of  Paris  there 
is  scarcely  one  which  I  value  so  much  as  the  memory  of 
the  old  man's  benediction.  I  little  thought  that  within  so 
short  a  time  he  was  to  enter  upon  that  longer  and  more 
mysterious  voyage  where  — 

"  On  a  vaster  sea  his  sail 
Drifts  beyond  our  beck  and  hail." 

Paris  has  splendidly  honored  her  greatest  citizen,  and  on 
the  bier  of  the  savior  of  France  rested  the  wreath  of  the 
German  Emperor.  Would  that  the  old  antagonisms  might 
be  buried  beneath  that  laurelled  sepulchre  ! 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    GERMAN   UNIVERSITY. 

(~*  OTTINGEN  has  recently  been  honored  by  a  visit  from 
^-*  the  Kultus  Minister  of  Berlin.  He  occupies  high 
rank  in  the  imperial  cabinet,  —  a  fact  which  shows  how  much 
more  dignity  belongs  to  learning  and  its  institutions  in 
Germany  than  belongs  to  it  in  Great  Britain  or  America. 
The  new  laboratory  of  Physical  Chemistry  was  dedicated 
during  the  ministerial  visit,  and  the  annual  prizes  for  the 
best  theses  in  the  various  departments  of  the  university  were 
announced  in  the  Aula,  the  old  university  headquarters,  a 
sort  of  monument  to  King  William  IV.  of  England,  whose 
statue  adorns  the  square  before  the  building,  and  whose 
portrait  appears  with  the  old  Emperor  William's  and  several 
others  in  the  audience  hall  within.  Here  I  saw  for  the 
first  time  the  members  of  all  the  faculties  in  their  official 
robes  and  caps.  They  impressed  me  as  a  body  of  big- 
brained  men,  while  their  gowns,  and  in  many  cases  their 
honorary  decorations,  made  a  scene  of  academic  splendor 
to  which  we  are  not  accustomed  in  America.  This  splendor, 
too,  was  greatly  enhanced  by  the  picturesque  costumes  of 
the  various  Verbindungen,  or  student  societies. 

When  the  Pro-rector  was  ready  to  announce  the  prize,  in 
each  case  one  of  the  red-robed  "pedells,"  or  university 
policemen,  received  from  the  head  of  the  special  depart- 
ment a  sealed  letter,  which  the  Pro-rector  cut  open  with  a 
knife,  and  learned  what  no  one  in  the  world  knew  up  to 
that  moment,  —  the  name  of  the  prize-winner.  As  soon  as 
each  name  was  announced  a  blast  of  music  followed  from 
the  orchestra,  but  there  was  no  demonstration  of  applause 


THE   GERMAN  UNIVERSITY.  85 

from  the  audience.  There  is  an  immense  deal  of  phleg- 
matic solidity  in  the  German  spirit,  and  when  later  the  Pro- 
rector  proposed  three  cheers  for  the  present  Emperor,  and 
when  all  arose  and  the  swords  of  the  society  students  were 
lifted  in  air,  the  cheers  were  given  in  unison,  with  military 
precision  and  without  a  particle  of  that  wild  enthusiasm 
which,  while  I  write,  greets  the  names  of  favorite  political 
leaders  in  the  Convention  at  St.  Louis. 

Nearly  a  hundred  of  my  fellow-countrymen  are  now  here, 
and  three  thousand  Americans  are  pursuing  higher  studies 
in  German  universities.  Gottingen  has  for  nearly  a  cen- 
tury been  a  favorite  seat  of  learning  for  American  students. 
Undoubtedly  the  foremost  German  university  to-day  is  Ber- 
lin, with  its  three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  instructors  and 
ninety-two  hundred  and  three  students,  but  many  'come 
hither  from  Berlin  on  account  of  the  smaller  numbers  and 
the  more  available  libraries.  Four  months  of  observation 
and  conferences  with  American  students  in  nearly  all  the 
departments  of  university  life  have  not  only  given  me  many 
interesting  impressions,  but  have  also  raised  still  higher  my 
estimate  of  that  peculiar  national  institution  the  German 
University.  It  is,  on  the  whole,  the  best  organization  now 
in  existence  for  enlarging  the  bounds  of  systematized  knowl- 
edge. It  furnishes  opportunity  and  incentive  to  the  student 
to  learn  from  libraries,  laboratories,  and  living  teachers  the 
last  results  of  investigation,  and,  in  some  respects  more  im- 
portant still,  it  gives  to  instructors  golden  opportunities  for 
continued  and  successful  research.  The  German  professor 
is  not  the  drudge  of  the  class-room.  Perhaps  his  main 
business  is  to  furnish  to  other  scholars,  through  books  and 
reviews,  the  best  results  of  his  investigation  or  his  specu- 
lation. 

The  German  professor,  while  a  man  of  wide  general  cul- 
ture, is  primarily  a  specialist,  and  the  supreme  achievements 
in  the  advancing  of  human  knowledge  are  partly  due  to  the 
narrowing  of  the  field  of  particular  study.  In  great  de- 
partments,  like  chemistry,  no  one  man  covers  the  whole 


S6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

field.  It  is  the  specialists  that  gain  celebrity  and  draw 
students.  For  example,  here  in  Gottingen,  Professor  Nernst 
has  become  so  famous  in  Physical  Chemistry  that  he  was 
loudly  called  to  the  University  of  Munich,  but  was  persuaded 
to  remain  here  on  the  condition  that  he  might  have  built 
for  him  a  well-equipped  laboratory,  which  has  been  recently 
dedicated,  and  is  the  only  building  in  the  world,  I  believe, 
devoted  exclusively  to  Physical  Chemistry.  An  examination 
of  the  German  university  calendar  furnishes  almost  number- 
less examples  of  the  present  subdivision  of  departments. 

While  I  compare,  in  certain  particulars,  the  German 
university  and  the  American  college,  my  readers  should  re- 
member that  the  two  do  not  occupy  the  same  field,  and 
are  not  intended  to  serve  exactly  the  same  ends.  The 
German  Gymnasium,  with  its  many  years  of  well-directed 
instruction  and  thorough  drill,  corresponds  in  considerable 
measure  with  the  college.  The  university  gathers  hundreds 
or  thousands  of  these  carefully  drilled  young  men,  all  grad- 
uates from  the  Gymnasium,  and  affords  them  the  oppor- 
tunity of  pursuing  special  studies  under  celebrated  professors, 
usually  as  a  preparation  for  professional  or  official  life.  Of 
course  there  are  universities  in  America  which  are  worthy 
of  the  name.  But  they  are  usually  linked  with  colleges,  and 
lack  that  unity  of  system  which  prevails  here.  The  first 
two  or  three  semesters  of  a  German  university  student's  life, 
especially  if  he  is  a  member  of  a  corps,  are  usually  spent,  to 
a  very  large  degree,  in  drinking,  duelling,  and  "  bummel- 
ling."  This  may  be  his  first  full  taste  of  liberty.  Pie  has 
worked  very  hard,  perhaps  too  hard,  during  his  years  in  the 
gymnasium.  lie  probably  has  seen  little  of  life,  has  not 
travelled  so  much  as  the  American  student,  and  now,  associ- 
ated with  young  men  of  various  minds,  of  different  ranks, 
and  from  different  parts  of  the  empire  and  of  the  world,  he 
finds  his  opportunity  of  learning  much  that  lies  outside  the 
domain  of  books.  He  of  course  drinks  beer,  and  to  excess. 
But  it  is  the  universal  testimony  of  men  coming  hither 
from  our  richer  Eastern  colleges  that  there  is  more   real 


THE   GERMAN  UNIVERSITY.  S1/ 

drunken  dissipation  in  these  American  institutions  than  in 
the  German  universities.  But  it  must  be  said  that  dissipa- 
tion in  the  three  hundred  and  fifty  American  colleges,  taken 
all  together,  East  and  West,  is,  after  all,  confined  to  the  few ; 
that  the  mass  of  American  students,  especially  in  the  West- 
ern and  in  the  smaller  colleges,  are  above  grave  reproach, 
and  are  devoted  to  their  work,  and  that  in  most  of  our  col- 
leges one  gets  an  impression  of  moral  earnestness  which  is 
not  equally  discoverable  here  in  Germany.  "  The  '  Bursch  ' 
is  free,"  is  the  song  of  the  German  student.  It  is  a  hila- 
rious liberty  which  he  enjoys,  and  with  all  the  advantages 
which  one  discovers  in  the  German  system,  and  with  all  the 
lovable  traits  of  the  German  character,  one  comes  to  value 
more  highly  than  ever  some  of  the  results  of  the  grand 
Puritan  discipline,  of  the  noble  Christian  training,  generally 
prevalent  in  the  American  colleges.  On  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Atlantic  the  main  purpose  is  to  fit  the  student  to  become 
a  useful  servant  of  the  state.  On  the  western  side  of  the 
Atlantic  I  find  the  general  purpose  to  fit  the  student  for  the 
service  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  In  Germany  the  student 
is  very  rarely  seen  in  church.  The  American  student  is 
usually  a  church-goer. 

Another  striking  contrast  between  German  and  American 
institutions  of  learning  is  this,  that  in  Germany  one  can  dis- 
cover no  rivalry  between  the  various  universities.  There  is 
none  of  that  intense  and  sometimes  excessive  devotion  to 
one  seat  of  learning,  mingled  with  a  hostile  and  deprecia- 
tory spirit  toward  others.  The  twenty-three  universities  of 
the  Fatherland,  from  Konigsberg  in  the  northeast  to  Stras- 
bourg in  the  southwest,  from  Berlin,  organized  early  in  the 
present  century,  to  Heidelberg,  founded  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  all  are  parts  of  one  great  govern- 
mental system,  and  in  large  measure  are  considered  to  be 
equal.  It  is  often  the  ambition  of  the  German  student  to 
take  his  six  semesters  in  as  many  different  universities  as  pos- 
sible. He  passes  freely  from  one  to  the  other,  attracted  by 
a  variety  of  considerations,  desire  for  change,  the  advantages 


88  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

of  some  special  department,  the  fame  of  some  great  profes- 
sor. For  example,  men  are  drawn  to  Gottingen  from  older 
and  larger  universities,  by  the  celebrity  of  Professor  Orth, 
who  is  deemed,  after  Virchow,  the  foremost  pathologist  in 
the  world,  and  on  account  of  the  advantages  offered  by  the 
immense  and  costly  hospital,  with  laboratories,  generally 
called  the  "  Clinics,"  which  is  famous  throughout  Europe. 
Generally  speaking,  it  may  be  said  that  there  are  no  athletics 
in  German  universities.  The  duellists,  of  course,  have  their 
drill  in  fencing,  and  there  are  Turnvereine,  societies  for  in- 
door gymnastics ;  but  boating,  base-ball,  foot-ball,  foot-rac- 
ing and  all  the  varieties  of  athletic  contest  which  absorb  the 
energies  of  American  students  and  sometimes  foolishly  im- 
bitter  the  rivalries  of  American  colleges,  are  unknown  here. 

But  the  most  characteristic  German  institution  is  the 
students'  duel,  a  prominent  feature  in  the  university  life  of 
Gottingen,  Jena,  and  Heidelberg,  far  more  so  than  in  Ber- 
lin, whose  metropolitan  character  has  a  tendency  to  reduce 
the  importance  of  this  form  of  athletic  sport.  Duelling  is  an 
institution  of  student  life  which  Germany  finds  it  hard  to 
get  rid  of.  In  a  pamphlet  published  this  year  in  Munich  it  is 
stated  that  among  the  forty  thousand  students  in  the  Ger- 
man higher  institutions  there  occur  yearly  at  least  eight 
thousand  Schlagermensuren,  or  duels,  with  the  light,  sharp 
sword,  where  the  duellist  is  protected  in  arms,  breast,  neck, 
and  eyes,  and  which  is  a  trivial  affair  compared  with  the 
sabre  duel,  which  is  serious  business,  and  wherein  the 
fighters  are  usually  protected  around  the  neck  and  under 
the  arms. 

A  few  days  ago  I  was  invited  by  an  American  student  to 
accompany  him  to  the  Mensur,  which  occurs  every  Wednes- 
day at  a  meeting-place  three  miles  out  in  the  country, 
beyond  Burg  Grona.  Of  the  twelve  duels  fought  that  day 
we  saw  three.  Beyond  a  small  garden,  fitted  up  with  beer- 
tables,  was  a  hall,  perhaps  forty  by  forty  feet,  with  an  ante- 
room where  the  wounded  were  cared  for.  About  seventy- 
five  students  of  various  societies  were  present.     The  corps 


THE   GERMAN  UNIVERSITY.  89 

students  have  their  contests  elsewhere.  We  were  very 
politely  received  and  entertained  during  the  short  time  of 
our  stay.  About  the  hall  are  big  boxes  containing  the  im- 
plements used  in  these  sports,  and  plenty  of  surgeons  and 
assistants  were  on  hand.  Two  duels  had  already  occurred, 
and  the  combatants  for  the  third  were  almost  ready  when 
we  arrived. 

The  fighters,  representing  different  societies,  having  no 
malice  against  each  other,  but  appointed  to  their  tasks, 
looked  rather  serious  as  they  faced  one  another,  but  cer- 
tainly they  were  also  grotesque,  with  big  eye-protectors 
strapped  behind  their  ears,  with  their  left  hands  tied  behind 
their  backs,  with  a  large  stuffed  breast-plate  like  those  used 
by  baseball  catchers  covering  the  whole  front  of  the  body, 
and  with  the  right  arm  of  each  so  swathed  with  heavy  ban- 
dages that  a  friend  had  to  support  it  in  a  horizontal  posi- 
tion during  the  intervals  of  the  fight.  Each  combatant  has 
by  him  a  guard,  who,  with  a  sword,  keeps  off  the  more  dan- 
gerous blows.  The  men  wore  their  caps  until  the  last 
moment.  Then  these  were  taken  off,  their  arms  were 
raised  above  their  heads,  the  signals  were  given,  the  swords, 
moved  only  by  the  wrists,  began  to  strike  down,  and  soon 
the  far,  or,  rather,  the  hair,  began  to  fly,  as  one  of  the 
swords  found  its  way  to  the  scalp  of  the  less  successful  com- 
batant. The  surgeons  frequently  interfered  to  examine  the 
wounds.  Each  Gang,  or  round,  lasts  but  a  few  seconds,  and 
the  duel  is  over  in  ten  minutes.  One  man  suffered  most  in 
his  cheeks,  and  the  other  on  his  scalp.  The  fight  ended 
with  neither  duellist  rejoicing  in  a  clean  victory.  A  good 
deal  of  blood  was  spilled,  and  the  young  men  did  not  look 
very  beautiful.  They  shake  hands,  the  bandages  are  re- 
moved, and  the  surgeons  and  assistants  begin  diligently 
their  tasks  of  sewing  up  the  many  gashes.  This  work  takes 
about  an  hour,  while  other  duels  are  in  progress.  There 
was  no  excitement,  and  there  was  no  cheering  in  these 
contests. 

In  the  second  fight  which  I  witnessed,  two  tall,  fine-look- 


90  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

ing  young  fellows,  with  fresh  faces,  unmarred  by  any  sword- 
cuts,  were  mated  against  each  other.  One  of  the  contest- 
ants, a  law  student  recently  from  Berlin,  did  not  receive  a 
scratch,  while  in  five  minutes  he  carved  the  top  of  his 
opponent's  head  into  a  bloody  checker-board,  and  the 
surgeons  ordered  the  blood-letting  to  stop. 

In  the  third  duel  a  small  man  was  matched  against  a  tall, 
eagle-nosed  fellow.  The  contest  lasted  but  a  few  minutes. 
The  taller  man  began  to  weaken  at  once.  He  looked  pale, 
and  was  not  fortified  even  by  the  glass  of  cognac  which 
was  administered.  The  surgeons  discovered  that  his  heart 
was  acting  badly,  and  the  fight  was  stopped. 

I  had  seen  enough  to  satisfy  my  curiosity  and  to  enable 
me  to  form  a  fair  judgment  on  the  relative  merits  of  Ger- 
man duelling  and  American  foot-ball.  The  Mensur  is  an 
old  and  popular  institution,  dear  to  the  students,  and 
strongly  championed  by  Prince  Bismarck  and  Emperor  Wil- 
liam. It  is  supposed  to  be  useful  for  the  German  university 
man  to  receive  the  training  in  nerve,  courage,  and  fortitude 
afforded  by  the  Mensur.  Plucky,  indeed,  and  never  winc- 
ing for  a  moment,  were  the  young  fellows  whose  heads  I 
saw  sewed  up  by  the  surgeons.  Had  they  quailed  under 
the  needle,  they  would  have  lost  caste  with  their  societies. 
It  appears  to  me  a  shocking  thing  for  young  men  to  allow 
their  faces  to  be  marred,  not  in  actual  battle  and  not  in 
just  quarrels,  but  in  these  conventional  and  artificial  fights. 
Still,  the  student  is  proud  of  his  gashes,  and  they  commend 
him  to  German  men  and  particularly  to  German  women. 

These  sword  duels,  as  distinguished  from  the  rare  and 
terrible  sabre  duels,  are  not  so  dangerous  to  life  and  health 
as  foot-ball  in  the  way  it  is  often  played.  But  foot-ball  re- 
quires a  better  and  fuller  physical  training.  It  develops 
swiftness,  strength,  patience,  pluck,  obedience,  and  intelli- 
gence, and  thus  can  accomplish  more  for  the  player  than 
does  the  duel  for  those  who  prepare  for  it  and  practise  it. 
Besides,  foot-ball  is  played  out  of  doors,  and  gives  whole- 
some pleasure  to  thousands  of  spectators. 


THE    GERMAN  UNIVERSITY.  9 1 

The  question  of  athletics  is  not  yet  fully  settled,  but,  in 
what  goes  toward  the  best  physical  development,  the  Brit- 
ish and  American  universities  appear  to  me  to  surpass  the 
German.  Duelling  here  is  contrary  to  law,  but  its  practice 
is  winked  at  by  the  authorities.  The  Germans  cling  so 
pertinaciously  to  what  is  national  that  they  may  be  slow  in 
adopting  any  of  the  athletic  features  of  foreign  schools. 
The  student  who  now  dearly  loves  his  Mensur,  and  doubtless 
finds  in  it  some  little  preparation  for  the  battlefield,  will 
yet  surrender  his  mediaeval  sword,  don  the  ugly  habit  of 
the  foot-ball  player,  and  revel  in  the  exhilaration  of  all  out- 
doors. The  time  will  come  when,  among  this  great  people, 
men  will  no  longer  be  willing  to  disfigure  the  "  human  face 
divine."  Very  slowly,  but  ultimately,  some  features  of  the 
English  and  American  athletic  life  will,  I  think,  be  in- 
troduced with  considerable  advantages  into  the  German 
universities. 

Almost  every  one  knows  that  the  system  of  teaching  here 
is  through  lectures,  and  in  the  scientific  departments  also 
through  individual  laboratory  work.  Seminars  supplement 
the  lecture  system.  But  here  everything  leads  to  and  de- 
pends upon  the  examination.  Regular  attendance  upon 
lectures  is  far  from  general,  and  is  not  always  necessary. 
The  student  must  be  in  residence,  and  his  book  is  signed 
by  the  professor  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  semester, 
though  his  face  may  be  quite  unfamiliar  to  his  teacher.  The 
story  is  told  of  a  young  man  in  Jena  who  handed  his  book 
to  the  professor  for  signature  at  the  close  of  the  half  year, 
and  when  the  professor  remarked,  "  I  have  not  seen  your 
face  before,"  the  student  replied,  "  Oh,  I  sat  behind  the 
pillar  !  "  "  You  are  the  twenty-third  student,"  said  the  pro- 
fessor, as  he  signed  his  name,  "  who  sat  behind  that  pillar  !  " 
Under  this  system,  where  all  depends  on  one  examination, 
it  is  inevitable  that  there  should  be  much  cramming.  The 
candidates  for  degrees,  especially  perhaps  the  non-German 
students,  who  have  the  disadvantage  of  working  in  a  foreign 
language,  look  upon  the  examination  as  the  critical  experi- 


92  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

ence  of  student  life.  Some  of  the  Americans  here  toil  pro- 
digiously in  the  months  preceding  the  two  hours  during 
which  a  committee  of  learned  German  professors  test,  with 
conscientious  thoroughness,  the  variety  and  accuracy  of  the 
technical  knowledge  which  has  been  acquired.  The  Arbeit, 
or  thesis,  which  every  candidate  is  required  to  submit,  must 
be  an  original  piece  of  work,  and  itself  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  knowledge.  I  have  known  students  here  who  have 
worked  for  months  over  an  Arbeit,  and  then  have  discov- 
ered that  some  other  thesis  had  been  published  covering 
the  same  ground.  In  a  few  cases  this  disappointment  has 
been  repeated  several  times. 

The  German  student  does  not  usually  appear  to  be  so 
hard  a  worker  as  his  American  contemporary.  But  he  has 
the  advantage  of  the  best  preliminary  drill  in  the  world. 
He  begins  his  Latin  early,  say  at  eight  years,  and  through 
the  long,  constant  discipline  of  his  preparatory  training,  he 
comes  to  know  well  the  chief  subjects  of  study.  His  mem- 
ory is  not  impaired,  as  with  us,  by  the  excessive  reading 
of  ten  thousand  things,  like  newspapers,  which  he  has  no 
thought  of  remembering,  and  by  the  fatal  system  of  requir- 
ing the  study  of  a  great  many  topics  at  the  same  time. 
What  gets  into  the  German  mind,  thus  disciplined,  is  apt 
to  stay  there.  Of  course  in  the  German  university,  as  more 
and  more  with  the  higher  American  colleges,  large  use  is 
made  of  the  library,  and  the  one  in  Gottingen  contains 
nearly  half  a  million  books.  Supplementing  all  that  I  have 
heretofore  described,  are  the  various  student  societies,  which 
enroll  those,  for  example,  who  are  studying  Chemistry,  The- 
ology, Mathematics,  Philology,  Physics,  Greek,  Roman  Law, 
or  Philosophy.  They  meet  perhaps  once  a  week  for  con- 
ference, and  the  professor  in  the  department  is  a  welcome 
visitor,  taking  part  in  the  discussion  and  also  in  the  long 
hours  of  sociable  drinking  which  follow. 

To  me  the  most  impressive  thing  in  a  German  university 
is  the  German  professor.  He  may  be  spoken  of  in  general 
as  a  man  of*  single  purpose,  high  aims,  lifelong  devotion  to 


THE   GERMAN  UNIVERSITY.  93 

his  specialty,  large  and  sometimes  extraordinary  acquire- 
ments, hating  superficiality,  narrowly  confined  to  the  scien- 
tific side  of  truth,  a  man  who  digs  very  deeply  his  well  or 
shaft,  and  who  is  apt  to  underrate  the  work  of  those  who 
simply  sow  the  surface  of  our  earth  with  those  grains  o 
truth  by  which  humanity  is  kept  alive.  Gottingen  has  had 
its  full  share  of  renowned  professors.  This  Georgia- Augusta 
University,  begun  in  1737,  under  the  patronage  of  George 
II.,  Prince  of  Hanover,  who  was  also  King  of  England, 
has  numbered  among  its  celebrities  Burger  the  poet ; 
the  historian  Gervinus ;  the  chemist  Wohler,  who  discov- 
ered aluminum  ;  the  physicist  W.  Weber,  who  invented  the 
electric  telegraph  before  Morse ;  the  Hebraist  Ewald ;  the 
theologian  Ritschl,  and  the  lexicographer  Jacob  Grimm. 
Great  men  are  still  here  to  support  the  old  renown.  Stu- 
dents are  attracted  hither  from  almost  all  the  world  by  the 
fame  of  Professor  Klein,  one  of  the  foremost  mathema- 
ticians now  living,  whose  face  became  familiar  to  many 
Americans  during  the  year  of  the  World's  Fair.  Professor 
Heyne,  who  continues  the  editorship  of  Grimm's  great 
German  dictionary,  the  editor  of  the  best  editions  of 
Ulfilas  and  of  Beowulf,  is  one  of  the  leading  philologists 
of  the  world.  Professor  von  Wilamowitz-Mollendorff  is 
deemed  by  many  the  greatest  Greek  scholar  in  Europe. 
He  is  now  lecturing  several  hours  a  week,  in  Latin,  on  Aris- 
tophanes. Professor  Schurer  is  here,  whose  "  History  of 
the  Jewish  People  in  the  Times  of  Jesus  Christ  "  is  one  of 
the  indispensable  books  to  the  modern  student.  Of  course 
one  of  the  world-famous  names  of  Gottingen  is  Julius  Well- 
hausen,  now  lecturing  on  Jewish  History  from  Cyrus  to 
Vespasian.  For  a  moment  let  us  follow  a  little  company 
of  German,  Scotch,  Irish,  and  American  students  into  his 
lecture-room  in  the  Auditorium.  We  pass  through  quite  a 
crowd  of  young  men,  with  a  few  young  women,  who  are 
coming  out  of  the  various  lecture-rooms,  or  who  linger  for 
a  moment  on  the  steps.  From  seven  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing to  seven  and  eight  in  the  evening,  groups  representing 


94  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

the  eleven  hundred  students  who  are  studying  in  the  uni- 
versity are  seen  passing  in  and  out  of  this  building.  It  is 
now  a  little  after  twelve  o'clock,  and  we  enter  the  lecture- 
room  and  seat  ourselves  on  the  dark  wooden  benches,  which 
have  been  plentifully  carved  with  names  by  several  genera- 
tions of  most  honorable  youths.  At  a  quarter  past  the  hour 
Professor  Wellhausen  enters,  stands  behind  his  desk,  and 
in  a  rapid  voice  begins  at  once  his  lecture.  He  is  a  short, 
strong,  heavy  man,  with  a  large,  firm,  good-natured  face,  an 
immense,  somewhat  retreating  forehead,  dark  hair,  and  gray 
beard.  He  speaks  with  increasing  rapidity  and  indistinct- 
ness, is  absorbed  in  his  subject,  never  once  looks  at  his 
hearers,  has  only  a  few  notes,  very  often  turns  nearly  around, 
and  with  one  hand  in  his  pocket  talks  with  earnest  volu- 
bility to  the  ceiling.  With  immense  brilliancy,  with  great 
dogmatism,  with  profound  learning,  he  proceeds  with  his 
task  of  reconstructing  ancient  Jewish  history.  Occasion- 
ally he  cracks  a  German  joke,  which  sets  the  lecture-room 
in  a  roar.  Quite  different  from  Wellhausen  is  Professor 
Schultz,  whose  lectures  on  Christian  Apologetics  are  now 
drawing  a  larger  number  of  hearers.  Professor  Schultz  sits 
during  his  lecture,  and  frequently  looks  at  his  eager  listen- 
ers. He  speaks  somewhat  rapidly,  but  very  distinctly, 
glancing  every  few  minutes  at  his  notes,  speaking  earnestly 
and  with  great  freedom,  from  a  mind  filled  with  wise  and 
carefully  digested  thought.  Professor  Schultz  may  be  called 
a  specialist  in  several  departments.  He  is  now  reading  on 
Apologetics,  Isaiah,  and  Homiletics  —  and  sometimes  he 
reads  on  Dogmatics.  His  work  on  Old  Testament  The- 
ology is  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  books  of  our  time. 
He  is  one  of  the  rare  men  greatly  needed  in  these  days 
of  reconstruction,  who  know  thoroughly  several  great  de- 
partments of  theological  and  philosophical  thought. 

The  advantages  of  German  university  life  to  an  Ameri- 
can are  great,  but  are  easily  overrated.  They  are  far  less 
important  than  they  were  twenty  years  ago.  True  American 
universities,  where  men  and  women  may  study  almost  every- 


THE    GERMAN  UNIVERSITY.  95 

thing  under  competent  professors  —  universities  like  Johns 
Hopkins,  Columbia,  Harvard,  Yale,  Cornell,  and  Chicago 
—  are  making  it  less  necessary  for  the  students  of  the  higher 
learning  to  come  to  Germany.  Still,  residence  here  is  the 
swiftest  course  to  a  knowledge  of  the  German  language. 

Only  about  a  hundred  American  students  are  found  in 
the  magnificent  University  of  France,  and  I  am  convinced 
that  if  more  of  our  countrymen  seeking  educational  advan- 
tages abroad  were  to  resort  to  Paris,  it  would  result  in 
greater  variety  and  in  more  flexibility  and  grace  in  the 
culture  found  in  our  higher  seats  of  learning.  Education 
in  Europe  should  usually  begin  with  mature  years.  Ameri- 
can parents  make  a  mistake  in  keeping  their  young  chil- 
dren a  long  time  in  French  or  German  schools,  for  this 
course  often  results  in  partially  de-Americanizing  them,  and 
in  unfitting  them  for  the  happiest  and  most  useful  life  in  their 
own  country.  English  parents  have  the  advantage  of  being 
able  to  send  their  children  to  the  Continent  for  shorter 
periods. 

But  in  Germany  great  honor  is  put  upon  university  train- 
ing. The  university  is  the  gate  through  which  all  must 
pass  who  enter  into  professional  life  or  serve  the  state  in 
the  more  important  offices.  Probably  no  country,  on  the 
whole,'  is  so  well  administered  in  its  governmental  depart- 
ments, as  Germany.  America  might  well  sit  for  a  decade 
in  humble  docility  at  the  feet  of  a  nation  where  integrity, 
conscientious  thoroughness,  and  long  and  careful  prepara- 
tion for  official  life  are  a  part  of  the  national  self-respect. 
Again,  it  should  be  remembered  that  though  the  area  of 
freedom  is  much  narrower  here  than  with  us,  still  the  in- 
tellectual liberty  accorded  to  the  German  professor  is 
larger.  He  is  free  from  ecclesiastical  and  every  other  kind 
of  dictation  and  control.  This  is  undoubtedly  in  many 
respects  an  advantage.  Germany's  contributions  to  new 
knowledge  in  every  line  have  been  prodigious.  Even  the 
sceptical  scholarship  which  has  attacked  Christian  super- 
naturalism   in  the   Scriptures,  has    removed    many    errors, 


g6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

widened  the  boundaries  of  ascertained  truth,  and  shown, 
sometimes  unwittingly  and  unwillingly,  the  impregnability 
of  the  Christian  citadel.  The  sceptical  speculations  of 
one  school  have  been  attacked  and  disproved  by  new 
schools  of  theorists.  There  is  doubtless  often  a  good  deal 
of  inflation  and  unreality  in  the  dogmatic  conclusions  of 
German  theological  scholars.  Much  of  their  enormous 
labor  is  vitiated  by  preconceived  philosophical  theories, 
and  the  deeper  religious  earnestness  and  the  grand  com- 
mon-sense of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  afford  correction  to  a 
learning  which  sometimes  pursues  its  way  under  the  guid- 
ance of  anti-supernaturalistic  theories.  I  am  not  sorry 
that  so  many  Americans  are  now  pursuing  their  advanced 
studies  in  Europe.  They  get  a  new  outlook,  a  new  in- 
sight into  the  older  civilization,  and  oftentimes,  what  is 
quite  as  important,  a  new  conviction  that  America,  true  to 
her  own  best  ideals,  and  appropriating  the  best  which  the 
Old  World  still  has  to  teach  her,  may  be  destined  to  lead 
the  march  of  human  progress,  even  in  the  domain  of 
education. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

A   DAY    IN   CASSEL   AND    THE    FOURTH    OF   JULY. 

f"T  was  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  we  took  our 
places  in  the  train  which  was  to  take  us  to  Cassel  in 
an  hour  and  a  half.  My  companions  had  earned  their 
holiday,  and  were  keenly  interested  in  everything,  from 
historic  memorials  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  to  the  delights 
of  a  table  d'hote  dinner  at  the  Hotel  du  Nord ;  from  the 
flower-bespangled  fields  to  the  masterpieces  of  Dutch  art ; 
from  the  curiosities  of  the  German  regulations  and  warnings 
inside  our  car  to  the  fountains,  cascades,  and  monuments 
of  the  Wilhelmshohe  Park.  Much  study  is  a  weariness  to 
the  flesh,  but  much  study  is  a  good  preparation  for  a  brief 
journey  through  a  land  of  art  and  history,  partly  for  the 
reason  that  a  little  play  affords  a  fine  exhilaration  after 
faithful  toil.  Continual  sight  seeing  and  pleasure-seeking 
with  people  who  have  no  vocation  and  no  habits  of  serious 
work  almost  destroy  the  power  of  enjoyment.  I  have 
known  rich  young  American  girls  and  boys,  too,  to  be  so 
surfeited  and  so  badly  trained  that  the  best  things  in  Europe 
no  longer  gave  them  pleasure.  So  that  I  sympathize  with 
a  friend,  now  spending  a  short  time  in  Paris,  who  feels  a 
growing  contempt  for  Americans  who  loll  about  that  city 
and  call  it  "  living  abroad."  As  he  listens  to  their  recitals 
of  how  they  kill  time,  he  feels  that  time  must  have  an 
easy  death  compared  with  the  living  which  its  murderers 
enjoy  ! 

The  strikingly  beautiful  region  through  which  we  passed 
presents  many  suggestions  of  that  most  frightful  of  all 
fierce  contentions  in   civilized   lands,  the   wasting   Thirty 

7 


98  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Years'  Religious  War  in  Germany,  that  reduced  sixteen 
millions  of  people  to  a  population  of  only  four  millions. 
The  town  of  Gottingen,  which  we  left,  endured  a  three 
months'  siege  from  the  terrible  Tilly  in  1624.  A  pestilence 
added  its  horrors  to  the  savagery  of  war,  and  the  moun- 
tains and  forests  which  looked  to  us  so  beautiful  as  our 
train  climbed  the  slope  toward  Miinden,  were  once  filled 
with  dead  bodies,  the  victims  of  battle  and  plague. 

At  Miinden,  a  delightful  old  town  at  the  junction  of  the 
Fulda  and  Werra,  which  was  captured  by  Tilly,  is  a 
memorial  tower  with  a  museum  containing  relics  and  repre- 
sentations of  that  horrible  struggle  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. The  two  streams  meeting  here  make  the  Weser,  the 
river  which  we  first  saw  at  Bremerhaven,  and  which  flows 
through  "  Hamelin  town,"  where  "  deep  and  wide,"  it 
"  washes  its  wall  on  the  southern  side,"  as  Browning  sings 
in  the  story  of  the  Pied  Piper. 

Cassel  is  now  a  prosperous  and  lovely  city,  with  large 
squares,  fine  streets,  several  interesting  monuments,  two 
or  three  good  museums,  one  church  dating  from  the  four- 
teenth century,  a  magnificent  picture  gallery,  and,  by  all 
odds,  the  grandest  park  in  Europe.  It  was  once  the 
capital  of  the  Electorate  of  Hesse,  and  in  the  Friedrichs- 
platz,  we  saw  the  marble  statue  of  the  landgrave,  Frederic 
II.,  who  during  our  Revolutionary  struggle  loaned  to 
George  III.,  in  consideration  of  twenty-two  million  dollars, 
twelve  thousand  of  his  soldiers.  The  monument  stands 
near  the  museum  which  bears  his  name,  a  museum  con- 
taining a  large  and  interesting  library,  where  the  famous 
brothers  Jacob  and  Wilhelm  Grimm  served  as  librarians. 

First  of  all,  with  "  a  Saxon's  pious  care,"  we  provided  for 
dinner,  an  important  feature  of  a  day's  pleasure  to  a  pair 
of  escaped  school-girls,  and  then  we  spent  two  happy  hours 
in  the  picture-gallery  on  the  Bellevue-strasse,  opposite  the 
Bellevue  palace,  where  Napoleon's  brother  Jerome  lived 
during  the  three  years  of  his  brief  reign.  The  great  Em- 
peror carved  up  old  Germany  about  as  he  pleased  ;  and  the 


A   DAY  IN  CASSEL.  99 

Kingdom  of  Westphalia,  which  he  gave  to  his  brother, 
included  not  only  Westphalia  proper,  but  also  Hesse  and 
Hanover.  The  Napoleonic  dominion  in  Germany  was  not 
protracted,  but  the  modern  Charlemagne  gave  to  the  Rhine 
provinces  one  boon,  one  memorial,  that  has  been  lasting. 
One-fifth  of  the  present  population  of  Germany  lives  under 
the  Code  Napoleon. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  William 
VIII.,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  was  Governor  of  Friesland, 
and  began  that  collection  of  Dutch  and  Flemish  pictures 
which  has  made  the  Cassel  gallery  famous.  In  the  gal- 
lery of  this  small  German  city  are  found,  besides  good 
examples  of  Ruysdael,  Snyders,  Paul  Potter,  Ostade,  and 
Gerard  Douy,  seven  portraits  by  Frans  Hals,  ten  fine  speci- 
mens each  of  the  pencils  of  Rubens  and  Jordaens,  ten 
excellent  pictures  by  Teniers,  and,  to  crown  all,  twenty- 
three  Wouvermans,  thirteen  Van  Dycks,  and  twenty-one 
Rembrandts. 

I  was  never  so  much  charmed  before  with  the  work,  of 
Wouverman,  who  painted  as  delicately  almost  as  Meisso- 
nier,  and  with  far  more  feeling.  Frans  Hals's  "  Singing 
Boys  "  is  a  work  of  great  charm,  and  here  are  some  of  the 
most  famous  of  Rembrandt's  portraits,  —  among  them  that 
of  his  father,  that  of  the  writing-master  Coppenol,  of  the 
poet  Jan  Krai,  and  the  striking  face  of  the  old  man  with 
a  gold  chain.  Here  also  we  see  several  of  Rembrandt's 
autobiographic  portraits.  These  are  among  the  most  inter- 
esting memorials  of  the  Dutch  master.  Were  they  all 
gathered  together,  they  would  show  him  in  almost  every 
dress  and  character  and  with  every  expression.  There 
are  the  odd  and  sumptuous  costumes,  the  leonine  mane, 
the  fierce  moustache,  and  the  bold  and  penetrating  eye  of 
earlier  years ;  and  then,  at  a  later  period,  under  sombre 
velvet  and  within  his  tufts  of  thin  white  hair  there  are 
many  traces,  not  of  feebleness,  but  of  the  sorrow  and  dis- 
appointment of  one  who  had  lost  the  brightness  of  his 
home  in  the  death  of  the  beloved  Saskia,  who  had  seen 


IOO  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

his  fortune  swept  away,  and  who  had  found  the  drift  of  the 
times  more  and  more  adverse  to  the  spirit  and  method  of 
his  art.  But  the  supreme  pictures  are  "  Saskia,"  decked 
out  in  every  splendor  which  her  lord's  brush  could  com- 
mand, and  the  marvellous  and  fascinating  "  Jacob  blessing 
the  Children  of  Joseph." 

Perhaps  there  is  nothing  in  all  art  fuller  of  deep  human 
interest  than  this  last-named  picture,  one  of  the  chief  land- 
marks in  the  artist's  development.  The  dying  Jacob,  half 
risen  from  his  bed,  supported  by  cushions,  his  venerable 
face  covered  by  a  long  white  beard,  is  stretching  his  arm 
toward  the  two  sons  of  Joseph  and  his  wife  Asenath.  The 
wife  stands  with  clasped  hands,  and  Joseph  is  seeking  to 
direct  his  father's  benediction  to  the  head  of  his  first-born 
son,  Manasseh,  a  black-haired,  curious,  and  irreverent  boy ; 
but  the  patriarch  gives  the  first  blessing  to  Ephraim,  the 
younger  son,  who  receives  it  in  a  beautiful  spirit  of  meek- 
ness, with  bowed  head  and  hands  folded  on  his  breast  — 
Ephraim,  who  was  to  be  a  "fruitful  branch,"  a  " multitude 
of  nations,"  whose  blessings  were  to  extend  to  the  "  utmost 
bound  of  the  everlasting  hills."  Does  not  Jacob  think 
of  that  other  deathbed  scene  one  hundred  years  before, 
when  he,  the  younger  son,  wrested  from  Esau  the  benedic- 
tion of  Isaac  ? 

The  head  of  the  dying  prophet,  painted  with  that  love 
with  which  Rembrandt  has  glorified  the  wrinkled  beauty 
of  old  age,  is  illumined  by  light  from  behind,  which  leaves 
the  face  in  shadow.  He  has  thrown  into  this  work  not 
only  the  poetry  of  tones  and  half-tones  of  inexpressible 
fineness,  but  also  the  charm  of  a  deathless  human  interest 
which  commends  this  canvas  to  the  mind  of  every  genera- 
tion, like  the  sculptures  of  the  Parthenon  and  the  stories 
of  the  Bible.  Rembrandt  is  rightly  considered  the  great- 
est genius  in  art  which  the  non-Latin  or  Gothic  races  have 
given  to  the  world.  I  hope  that  in  1907,  the  three  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  his  birth,  Holland  will  arrange  for  a 
loan   exhibition   of  all   the   works  of  her  greatest  master 


A   DAY  IN  CASS  EL.  10 1 

which  may  be  gathered  from  the  galleries  of  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  France,  Russia,  and  America. 

Leaving  the  realms  of  high  art,  we  entered  the  cheerful 
domain  of  the  hotel  dining-room,  and  then  boarded  the 
steam  tram  for  the  chief  of  all  the  attractions  of  Cassel,  — 
the  great  park,  a  few  miles  out,  called  the  Wilhelmshohe, 
formerly  the  residence  in  summer-time  of  the  proud  and 
pompous  electors  of  Hessen.  The  shaded  avenue  along 
which  the  road  leads  us  to  the  spacious  palace  and  beauti- 
ful grounds  of  the  great  hilly  park  is  bordered  by  hundreds 
of  fine  and  noble  houses,  with  that  shaded,  secluded,  aris- 
tocratic, and  yet  very  comfortable  appearance  which  the 
well-to-do  Germans  so  successfully  give  to  their  homes. 

A  ten  minutes'  walk  from  the  terminus  of  the  tramway 
takes  us  through  lines  of  stately  beeches,  oaks,  larches, 
and  limes  to  the  Schloss,  a  sumptuous  semicircular  palace, 
which  is  now  occupied  by  the  family  of  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II., 
and  which  was  the  temporary  residence  of  the  Emperor 
of  the  French,  Napoleon  III.,  after  the  dismal  collapse  of 
his  empire  at  Sedan. 

From  the  broad  greensward  in  front  of  the  Schloss  the 
stately  park,  with  its  glorious  trees  and  numberless  cascades 
and  geyser-like  fountains,  sweeps  broadly  upward  to  pic- 
turesque and  wooded  heights  for  nearly  one  thousand  feet. 
And  directly  in  line  with  the  Schloss  and  the  wooded  way 
to  the  city  is  probably  the  longest  and  largest  artificial  cas- 
cade in  the  world,  —  a  colossal  piece  of  rockwork,  climbing 
between  tall,  slim,  dense  fir-trees  to  an  immense  octagonal 
structure,  the  Giants'  Castle,  on  the  tower  of  which  stands 
a  gigantic  bronze  figure  of  the  Farnese  Hercules,  so  large 
that  eight  persons  may  stand  inside  his  heroic  club.  Within 
the  park  is  a  fountain  of  equal  strength  with  some  of  the 
most  famous  geysers  of  the  Yellowstone,  sending  up  for  two 
hundred  feet  a  stream  of  water  a  foot  in  thickness.  Be- 
sides the  cascades,  which  are  allowed  to  descend  from  this 
great  octagonal  tower  only  on  Sundays,  is  the  new  water- 
fall.    There  are  also  other  cascades,  for  this  is  the  paradise 


102  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

of  the  water  spirits.  As  we  were  climbing  toward  the  Giant's 
Castle  a  musical,  thunderous  noise  suddenly  greeted  us. 
One  of  the  cascades  had  been  set  in  motion.  It  soon  filled 
the  basin  at  the  foot  of  it,  and  in  five  minutes  a  second 
cascade  tumbled  into  another  basin.  The  visitors  followed 
this  moving  spectacle  downward  until  the  lessening  volume 
was  carried  over  an  aqueduct  supported  by  a  dozen  great 
arches,  and  finally  down  the  rocks,  which  the  daily  baptism 
of  water,  lasting  an  hour,  transformed  into  such  an  Eden 
of  ferns  and  other  greenery  as  one  rarely  sees. 

You  must  drive  for  several  hours  in  Wilhelmshohe  to 
reach  all  the  chief  points  of  interest.  But  my  heroic  com- 
panions determined  on  one  great  climb  to  the  club  of  Her- 
cules. The  ascent  of  St.  Paul's,  St.  Peter's,  or  the  Cologne 
Cathedral  is  a  childish  feat  compared  with  this  ;  but  we  made 
it,  and  our  eyes  took  in  one  of  the  finest  prospects  of  the 
Fatherland.  Right  below  us  was  the  cascade,  whose  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-four  steps  we  had  climbed.  Below  that 
were  the  steep  paths  which  lead  to  the  foot  of  the  water- 
fall. Then  came  the  Schloss,  home  of  the  Electors,  the  im- 
prisoned Emperor,  and  now  of  the  Kaiserin  and  her  merry 
boys.  Beyond  lay  embowered  in  trees  the  proud  old  city 
of  Cassel,  and  farther  still  were  great  leagues  of  brilliant 
green,  on  whose  pastures  and  wheat-fields  rested  broad 
squares  of  summer  sunshine.  As  during  the  days  of  his 
imprisonment.  Napoleon  III.  looked  out  of  the  windows  of 
yonder  Schloss  and  up  toward  the  heights  on  which  we 
stood,  all  this  beauty  was  doubtless  a  weariness  to  his 
spirit.  He  may  have  thought  of  the  gardens  and  foun- 
tains of  the  Tuileries  and  of  the  broader  but  less  picturesque 
glories  of  Versailles,  and  he  doubtless  felt  keenly  his  per- 
petual foredoomed  exclusion  from  France. 

But  what  do  we  know  of  an  exiled  emperor's  dream? 
This  park  and  palace  come  closer  to  Americans  than  any 
thoughts  of  Napoleon  can  bring  them  to  us.  We  may 
rightly  say  that  these  costly  splendors  were  given  to  the 
world  by   the    heroism  of  our   revolutionary  sires.     Great 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY.  103 

Britain  could  not  conquer  our  fathers,  and  she  called  in  the 
aid  of  Hessian  mercenaries.  And  the  millions  which  the 
Elector  received  for  the  services  of  his  soldiers  he  lavished 
on  the  great  palace  and  these  fair  and  wonderful  grounds. 
So  we  took  leave  of  Hercules  and  the  Hessians,  of  Wilhelms- 
hohe  and  Napoleon,  with  grateful  thoughts  of  those  who 
fought  at  Bunker  Hill  and  Yorktown  and  made  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  the  Magna  Charta  of  freedom 
and  the  death-warrant  of  despotism  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  reminds  me  of  the 
demonstration  of  pure,  patriotic  loyalty  and  pride  that  the 
Americans  in  Gottingen  have  given  this  year,  in  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Fourth  of  July.  We  felt  it  to  be  our  duty 
and  our  high  honor  to  uphold  the  banner,  although  we 
were  not  allowed  to  fling  the  flag  to  the  breeze  until  we 
got  outside  the  gates  of  the  town.  The  village  of  Bremke 
has  for  several  years  been  the  favorite  Fourth  of  July  resort 
of  the  American  Colony,  and  it  was  chosen  this  year  by 
Mr.  Edward  Fitch,  —  now  Dr.  Fitch,  for  he  has  re- 
cently taken  his  Ph.  D.,  —  the  amiable  Patriarch  of  the 
American  contingent  here. 

The  committees  appointed  to  make  arrangements  for 
the  celebration,  and  to  provide  a  generous  American  spread 
for  nearly  one  hundred  hungry  souls  who  were  eager  for  an 
American  taste  in  the  banquet,  worked  with  a  diligence  and 
zeal  worthy  of  so  good  and  great  a  cause.  They  reminded 
me  of  the  spirit  in  which,  during  the  war,  our  women 
labored  for  the  comfort  of  the  boys  in  blue.  The  skies  did 
not  smile  upon  us  in  the  morning.  We  could  not  say,  in 
the  words  of  Emerson's  Fourth  of  July  ode,  — 

"  Oh,  tenderly  the  haughty  day 

Fills  his  blue  urn  with  fire ; 
One  morn  is  in  the  mighty  heaven, 

And  one  in  our  desire." 

But  the  afternoon  beamed  upon  us,  although  the  tempera- 
ture made  sealskin  sacks  and  winter  overcoats  articles  of 


104  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

comfort.  A  fine  delegation  of  Americans  from  Hanover, 
where  the  American  Colony  is  mostly  English,  rode  up  to 
join  our  patriotic  ranks,  and  one  fervent  youth  came  from 
Berlin. 

The  eight  barges  and  carriages  which  were  to  transport 
us  to  Bremker  Thai  assembled  at  the  Geismar  gate  for  the 
start.  One  of  the  barracks  of  the  German  soldiers  is  here, 
and,  as  we  were  now  outside  the  town,  up  went  the  banner 
of  the  American  Colony  and  a  dozen  other  silken  and  starry 
flags.  The  Kaiser's  soldiers  paused  in  their  drill  to  gaze 
at  the  strange  spectacle.  The  workmen  and  the  small  boys 
gathered  around  us,  and  the  singing  and  cheering  from  this 
company  of  chemists,  doctors,  theologians,  physicists, 
philologists,  and  philosophers  —  hailing  from  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent institutions  and  as  many  States,  but  now  simply 
Americans  —  became  so  tumultuous  that  doubtless  some 
of  the  townspeople  thought  that  we  were  starting  for  the 
neighboring  insane  asylum.  But  one  German  who  had 
been  eleven  years  in  America  was  wild  with  joy  to  see  the 
old  flag  again  and  to  hear  us  sing  "  Shouting  the  Battle-Cry 
of  Freedom." 

About  half-past  two  o'clock  the  bannered  procession 
moved  out,  and  the  patriotic  singing,  in  which  the  women 
joined  as  heartily  as  did  the  rest,  scarcely  ceased  during  the 
ten  miles'  drive  through  several  villages,  one  of  which, 
Rheinhausen,  is  very  picturesque.  The  carriages  were 
plentifully  provided  with  fire-crackers,  which  were  dropped 
in  the  road,  and  kept  up  a  rather  unsatisfactory  fusillade, 
for  the  reason  that  many  of  them  would  not  go  off.  It  was 
the  general  impression  that  most  of  the  bunches,  which  here 
cost  five  times  what  they  do  at  home,  were  brought  back 
from  America  by  the  Hessian  soldiers  who  had  been  hired 
to  put  down  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  But  what 
was  lacking  in  the  crackers  was  made  up  by  pistols,  horns, 
and  stentorian  human  lungs.  Peasants  and  villagers,  staring 
good-naturedly  at  the  cavalcade,  were  greeted  with  the  un- 
intelligible inquiry,  "  Are  you  Democrats  or  Republicans?  " 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY.  1 05 

Why  are  Americans  so  patriotic  abroad  ?  I  answer  by 
saying  that  not  all  of  them  are,  although  the  educated  ones 
are  apt  to  be  so.  Unfortunately,  some  Americans  come  to 
Europe  too  young,  and,  worse  still,  others  are  trained  under 
semi-European  influences  at  home.  Besides  this,  the  old 
parable  of  the  sower  explains  most  of  the  phenomena  of 
human  life.  There  are  those  who  in  their  natures  "  have 
no  deepness  of  earth,"  and  the  blighting  sun  of  the  English 
newspapers  withers  speedily  the  Americanism  of  a  few 
of  our  people  who  are  ignorant  of  the  real  meaning  of  our 
country.  Lacking  profound  convictions,  knowing  but  little 
of  the  higher  life  of  the  great  Republic,  listening  to  the 
detractions  and  the  contemptuous  tone  with  which  a  genuine 
Americanism  is  treated  by  the  English  papers, —  they  have 
nothing  with  which  to  withstand  the  influences  besetting 
them.  But  with  sturdier  natures  these  influences  work 
precisely  in  the  other  way. 

The  general  ignorance  here  about  America,  except  among 
the  few,  is  profound.  English  girls  in  German  schools 
usually  rank  America  with  Africa  and  Australia.  The 
commonplaces  in  regard  to  our  great  men,  our  wealth, 
history,  population,  chief  cities,  and  institutions,  are  unfami- 
liar to  many,  although  I  have  been  recently  surprised  that 
two  humble  German  servants  knew  the  geographical  fact 
that  the  water-surface  in  the  United  States  is  equal  to  the 
area  of  the  whole  German  Empire.  American  boys  in  school 
here  are  told  by  their  school-fellows,  "  You  're  Americans  !  " 
meaning  thereby  to  insult  them.  I  know  one  boy,  however, 
who  was  proud  of  the  insult ;  and  when  he  was  told,  "  You 
have  no  army  in  America,"  he  astonished  his  critics  by  in- 
forming them  that  the  United  States  soldiers  in  our  Civil 
War  numbered  over  two  million  six  hundred  thousand.  He 
told  them  that  this  number  did  not  include  the  soldiers  in 
the  Confederate  army,  and  that  our  population  then  was 
less  than  fifty  million.  But  the  recent  triumphs  of  the 
American  athletes  in  Athens  have  impressed  these  German 
boys  even  more  than  did  the  vast  armies  of  the  Civil  War. 


106  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  misinformation  about  America 
prevailing  in  Europe.  A  German  student  said  to  a  mem- 
ber of  the  American  colony,  "  I  understand  that  in  your 
country  only  Republicans  celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July." 
But  one  thing  American  does  make  its  impression  here,  I 
mean  our  popular  tunes.  Walking  with  my  daughters  and 
meeting  university  students,  they  have  from  time  to  time 
conveyed  to  us  the  information  that  they  knew  our  nation- 
ality by  whistling  "Daisy  Bell,"  "The  Bowery,"  "Sweet 
Marie,"  and  "  After  the  Ball." 

The  Bremke  valley  is  exceedingly  lovely.  Passing  from 
fields  where  we  saw  millions  of  red  poppies,  white  daisies, 
and  blue  corn-flowers,  and  rejoicing  that  our  national  colors 
were  sprinkled  so  bountifully  over  these  old  plains  of  Ger- 
many, we  entered  the  long,  narrow  valley  where  the  road 
—  a  part  of  the  way  —  is  hewn  through  the  rock,  and 
where  the  wooded  heights  on  either  side  tempt  the  feet  of 
climbers.  Where  the  vale  is  somewhat  wider  the  small  vil- 
lage of  Bremke  lies  in  peaceful  isolation. 

Here  were  the  hall  and  the  Gasthaus,  that  received  us. 
Here  was  the  picturesque  amphitheatre,  where  a  game  of 
American  base-ball  was  soon  organized  and  under  way,  and 
where  the  side  led  by  a  son  of  an  eminent  Professor  of 
Therapeutics  in  Philadelphia,  and  assisted  by  various  base- 
men and  fielders  from  several  American  colleges,  knocked 
out  a  game  of  nine  to  eight  over  an  equally  eminent  body 
of  students  representing  most  sections  of  the  great  Republic. 
Here  the  colony  got  itself  together  and  was  photographed 
by  one  of  its  own  members,  —  formerly  an  instructor  in  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  And  here  was  a 
well-enclosed  yard,  covered  with  greensward,  where  boys 
of  all  ages  began  to  set  off  their  noisy  fireworks.  The  Ger- 
man Kanonenschlager,  or  cannon-crackers,  have  a  detonat- 
ing power  which  would  delight  the  soul  of  any  youthful 
patriot  dwelling  in  America. 

The  tables  at  which  the  hungry  hearts  of  men  and 
women   were    to    be    satisfied   were    spread   by   American 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY.  IOJ 

fingers  fair  and  strong,  the  men  faithfully  assisting,  and 
about  seven  o'clock  the  American  colony  sat  down  to  a  di- 
vine feast.  At  the  close  of  it  the  Patriarch,  who  is  the 
fifty-fifth  in  the  succession,  read  a  letter  of  greeting  from  a 
club  in  Philadelphia,  seventeen  gentlemen,  our  predecessors 
here,  who,  as  George  Canning  sung,  thought 

"  Of  those  companions  true, 
Who  studied  with  them  at  the  U — 
— niversity  of  Gottingen  — 
— niversity  of  Gottingen  !  " 

Then  Dr.  Fitch,  who  is  soon  to  return,  resigned  the 
patriarchate  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Ruete,  the  next  oldest 
among  resident  American  students,  and  he  introduced  me  as 
the  orator  of  the  evening.  I  told  them  the  story  of  the 
deaf  old  gentleman  who  went  into  an  Episcopal  church  in 
New  York,  and  was  seated  rather  far  from  the  lectern, 
which  was  a  brazen  eagle  upholding  the  volume  of  the 
Scriptures.  Beckoning  to  an  usher,  he  said,  "  Please  take 
me  a  little  nearer  to  the  fowl !  "  I  endeavored  to  strike 
the  patriotic  chord  and  to  bring  my  friends  a  little  closer 
to  the  American  eagle,  that  bird  which  is  growing  more 
humane  and  less  rapacious,  but  which  has  of  late  been 
righteously  impatient  with  the  Spanish  vulture,  preying 
pitilessly  on  the  fair  island  of  Cuba.  I  expressed  the 
hope  that  this  eagle  might  one  day  spread  his  wings  over 
the  whole  North  American  continent,  and  I  am  sure  that 
fifty  years  from  now  the  feature  of  the  St.  Louis  platform 
which  will  seem  then  most  significant  and  prophetic  is  the 
now  almost  unheeded  declaration  in  favor  of  the  union, 
under  one  government,  of  the  English-speaking  peoples 
of  America. 

I  think  that  one  step  toward  the  Americanizing  of  the 
New  World  will  be  the  destruction  of  Spanish  domination 
in  Cuba.  Everybody  in  Germany  favors  the  Spanish  side 
of  the  present  contention,  but  if,  unfortunately,  the  peace 
shall  ever  be  broken  between  the  American  Republic  and 
the    Spanish  Monarchy,   the  issue  will  probably  recall   to 


108  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

some  of  us  the  story  of  what  occurred  a  few  years  after  the 
Civil  War  to  some  American  sailors  on  the  coast  of  Mexico. 
These  sailors  were  marines  belonging  to  a  ship  in  our 
navy.  They  amused  themselves  and  lost  their  money  in 
cock-fights  with  the  Mexicans.  The  birds  on  which  they 
wagered  were  invariably  defeated.  At  last  they  said  they 
would  send  for  a  genuine  American  rooster,  which  was  to 
be  obtained  in  a  few  weeks.  There  was  on  board  their 
ship  an  eagle,  whose  wings  had  been  clipped.  The  marines 
pulled  out  his  tail  feathers,  tied  on  a  rooster's  tail,  manu- 
factured a  comb,  and  gave  what  was  left  a  suitable  coat  of 
paint.  For  four  days  before  the  fight  they  starved  the 
eagle  until  he  was  fiercer  than  any  hungry  aquiline  bird  in 
the  mountains.  Great  stakes  were  set  up  on  the  coming 
contest.  The  Mexicans  scoured  the  country  for  the  bravest 
fighting  cock  to  be  had.  They  were  somewhat  surprised  at 
the  strange-looking,  wobbling  creature  which  was  brought 
out  as  the  Yankee  cock,  and  felt  sure  of  an  easy  victory. 
The  marines  assured  them  that  that  was  the  way  a  genuine 
American  rooster  always  looked !  When  the  Mexican 
cock  appeared  and  his  eagleship  caught  sight  of  him,  the 
sailors  could  hardly  hold  him.  When  the  signal  was  given, 
the  American  bird  went  like  lightning  for  his  prey,  and, 
with  one  stroke  of  his  terrible  beak,  he  ripped  open  the 
Mexican  bird  from  end  to  end.  The  American  marines  re- 
gained more  than  all  that  they  had  lost,  and,  even  to  this 
day,  the  Mexicans  are  said  to  retain  an  exalted  opinion  of 
the  American  fighting  cock. 

But  my  oration  was  not  conceived  in  any  aggressive 
spirit,  but,  fully  recognizing  and  appreciating  the  worth  and 
many-sided  glories  of  other  great  nationalities,  I  endeavored 
to  set  forth  the  peculiar  and  divine  significance  of  America's 
present  and  future.  It  is  certainly  the  duty  of  educated 
Americans  to  resist  every  influence  which  would  degrade  or 
belittle  the  Republic,  to  contribute  to  every  higher  element 
of  the  national  life,  and,  above  all,  not  to  despair  of  our 
country. 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY.  1 09 

After  the  banquet  there  came  the  dancing  and  the  fire- 
works, both  of  which  are  thought  to  have  lifted  the  Ameri- 
can spirit  still  higher.  In  the  midst  of  the  festivities  there 
appeared  the  pale  face  of  a  popular  young  Englishman,  the 
son  of  Professor  Lockyer,  the  great  astronomer.  He  is  an 
adopted  member  of  the  American  colony,  and  usually  joins 
in  their  patriotic  celebrations.  But  this  Fourth  of  July  was 
set  apart  for  his  "  Ph.  D."  examination.  If  he  passed  he 
was  to  make  his  appearance  among  the  joyful  Americans, 
and  when  they  caught  sight  of  him  the  dancing  instantly 
ceased,  and  all  rushed  forward  to  give  him  their  hearty  con- 
gratulations. In  the  republic  of  letters,  as  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  there  are  no  national  divisions. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

IN  THE    HARTZ    MOUNTAINS. 

'T'HE  peculiar  charm  of  the  Hartz,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is 
in  the  perpetual  blending  of  historic  and  legendary 
interest  with  natural  beauty.  If  one  has  seen  much  of 
mountain  scenery  and  looked  at  these  works  of  God  with 
reverent  and  loving  eyes,  he  will  not  be  contemptuous  of 
the  Hartz  because  they  are  surpassed  by  the  Alps,  nor  of  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland  because  they  are  overtopped  by  the 
Rockies.  And  in  these  German  heights  which  seem  very 
small,  not  only  to  one  who  measures  them  by  the  glories  of 
Switzerland,  but  also  to  him  who  is  fresh  from  the  White 
Hills  of  New  Hampshire,  sympathetic  souls  will  discover 
and  feel  the  pleasures  of  spiritual  company  as  rare  and 
radiant  as  men  often  enjoy.  The  Brocken  —  "  Brocken's 
sovran  height,"  as  Coleridge  calls  it  —  rises  about  thirty- 
four  hundred  feet.  This  is  slightly  lower  than  Greylock 
in  the  Berkshire  Hills,  but  from  the  lower  mountain 
here  one  looks  "over  field,  forest,  and  city  and  spire  and 
mist-tracked  stream  of  the  wide,  wide  German  land " 
—  from  Hanover,  Brunswick,  and  Magdeburg,  to  Leipsic, 
Gotha,  Erfurt,  and  Cassel  —  that  is,  if  he  has  escaped  the 
experience  of  those  who,  as  the  English  say,  have  "  missed 
the  view  and  viewed  the  mist."  And  in  this  hilly  domain 
the  traveller  has  looked  down  on  the  homes  of  more  fairies 
than  ever  flocked  to  the  Alps,  the  Andes,  or  the  Himalayas. 
The  gnomes  and  witches  have  rarely  been  partial  to  the 
highest  mountains.  They  love  to  make  their  homes  nearer 
to  the  common  abodes  of  men. 


IN  THE  HARTZ  MOUNTAINS.  \\\ 

But  our  gratitude  goes  forth,  not  merely  to  the  elves  and 
to  their  friends  the  poets,  but  also  to  the  "  Hartz  Club," 
which  has  mapped  out  this  whole  region  of  over  one  thou- 
sand square  miles,  posted  innumerable  guide-boards,  built 
picturesque  shelters,  and  made  convenient  platforms  and 
resting-places  where  one  may  drink  in  the  beauties  of  many 
a  valley  while  he  listens  to  the  most  delicious  music  that 
man  ever  hears,  —  a  blending  of  the  whispering  of  the  pines 
with  the  tinkling  of  distant  herd-bells  and  the  delicate  mur- 
mur of  the  falling  rivulet.  We  may  not  be  in  love  with 
paternal  government  in  all  its  manifestations,  but  we  should 
be  thankful  for  good  roads  and  footpaths,  and  especially  for 
the  care  which  wise,  economical  old  Germany  takes  of  her 
forest  lands.  We  looked  on  miles  of  straight  and  stalwart 
fir-trees  that  had  been  planted  and  were  now 

"  Warming  their  heads  in  the  sun, 
Checkering  the  grass  with  their  shade," 

because  savagery  does  not  reign  here  in  the  treatment  of 
forests,  as  it  appears  to  rule  over  wide  tracts  of  once  equally 
noble  woods  in  northern  Michigan  and  Wisconsin.  We  saw 
thousands  of  tiny  trees  planted  where  the  old  firs  had  been 
removed  ;  and  thus  in  this  and  other  ways  the  mountains 
bewitched  us  "  by  the  glamour  of  the  human  past,"  even  as 
"  the  green  pastures  and  golden  slopes  of  England,"  as 
Lowell  has  said,  "  are  sweeter  both  to  the  outward  and  to 
the  inward  eye  that  the  hand  of  man  has  immemorially 
cared  for  and  caressed  them." 

"  Far  over  Elfland  poets  stretch  their  sway,"  little  dream- 
ing, many  of  them,  how  wide  and  sweet  and  perennial  their 
dominion  often  is.  A  new  charm  hovers  over  the  Highlands 
of  Scotland  since  the  Wizard  of  the  North  furnished  his 
rhymed  itinerary  in  the  "  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  and  it  is 
reported  that  a  mention  of  any  place  by  Sir  Walter  has 
added  substantial  value  to  the  adjacent  Scottish  acres. 
Men  journeying  to  the  Hebrides  think  of  old  Sam  John- 
son's famous  tour  ;  and  those  who  follow  the  Appian  Way  to 


112  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Brundusium  sometimes  drink  grateful  bumpers  to  the  mem- 
ory of  Horace.  The  Adirondacks  have  gained  a  new  human 
interest  to  many  of  us  since  Emerson  pitched  his  philoso- 
phers' camp  amid  those  "  centurial  shadows,  cloisters  of  the 
elk."  And  the  Hartz  region  proudly  claims  the  impalpable 
treasure  of  five  nineteenth-century  poets,  —  Goethe,  Words- 
worth, Coleridge,  Heine,  and  Matthew  Arnold,  —  while  also 
bathed  in  a  weird  light  from  legends  old  as  the  times  of  the 
Saxon  kaisers.  I  found  the  city  of  Goslar,  at  the  foot  of  the 
Rammelsberg,  —  a  favorite  residence  of  the  German  em- 
perors in  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries,  —  so 
interesting  as  to  absorb  two  golden  days  and  two  small 
golden  pieces.  I  left  Gottingen  late  in  the  afternoon, 
driven  out  of  the  town  by  the  entreaties  of  my  family,  and 
not,  as  Heine  was,  by  his  weary  disgust  with  the  university 
life  and  his  longings  to  escape  from  the  "  black  coats  and 
silken  stockings  "  to  the  mountain  heights,  where  the  "dark 
fir-trees  tower  and  the  brooks  roar,  the  birds  are  singing  and 
the  proud  clouds  are  hunting."  My  closest  companion 
during  these  days  was  a  young  professor  of  Greek  from  the 
Northwestern  University,  who  had  spent  four  years  at  Johns 
Hopkins  and  had  recently  returned  from  a  tour  in  Greece 
with  Professor  Gildersleeve.  For  his  classical  learning  I 
might  almost  call  him  a  youthful  Scaliger,  and  for  his  west- 
ern wit  and  humor  a  Dick  Oglesby.  We  followed  Heine 
through  Weende,  Bovenden,  Norten,  and  Nordheim,  not  on 
foot,  however ;  the  train  was  quicker  and  more  convenient, 
and  our  walking  and  climbing  were  to  come  later,  when  the 
scenery  grew  more  picturesque.  But  even  on  the  train  I 
could  not  get  rid  of  Heine,  and  in  imagination  I  saw  him 
strolling  in  the  bright  morning  air  along  the  Chaussee,  joyful 
over  his  release  from  the  thraldom  of  the  Corpus  Juris  and  his 
other  legal  studies,  and  encountering  at  Bovenden  the  much- 
satirized  university  "  Pedell,"  or  policeman,  whose  business 
was  to  prevent  students  from  duelling  and  to  see  that  no  new 
ideas,  which  must  always  halt  for  several  decades  before  the 
Gottingen  quarantine,  were  smuggled  in  by  any  speculative 


IN  THE  HARTZ  MOUNTAINS.  1 13 

Privat  Docent !  What  unexpected  back-blows  he  was  always 
striking,  as  when,  describing  the  coming  and  going  of  the 
student  generations  at  the  university,  where  one  semester 
wave  follows  another,  he  adds  that  only  the  old  professors 
remain,  undisturbed,  like  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  except 
that  in  these  university  pyramids  no  wisdom  is  hidden 
away  ! 

After  reaching  Nordheim  we  let  Heine  go  on  alone  to 
Osterode  and  Clausthal  and  to  the  mines,  — go  on  alone,  and 
yet  accompanied  with  visions  that  have  made  us  all  the 
richer.  His  wit  and  his  poetry  even  Germany  is  coming  to 
appreciate,  but  poor  Heine  is  allowed  no  statue  in  the  Father- 
land. The  Germany  of  his  day  was  bruised  and  blinded 
and  blundering,  and  yet  groped  after  that  deliverance  and 
imperial  rehabilitation  which  have  since  come.  And  Heine 
was  irreverent  and  merciless  in  his  satire  of  the  Germany 
which  he  seems  to  have  only  half  loved.  Then  he  wor- 
shipped Napoleon,  and  he  died  in  Paris  ;  and  over  the  grave 
of  the  expatriated  poet  in  Montmartre  the  "  Heinrich  "  of 
his  name  is  changed  to  "  Henri." 

We  made  the  two  hours'  trip  to  Goslar  with  only  one 
change.  On  our  return  to  Gottingen  from  Ilsenburg,  a  little 
longer  journey,  the  German  government  carried  us  on  five 
different  trains.  There  seemed  to  be  on  the  average  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  railroad  officials  at  each  of  the  stations 
where  we  stopped.  The  Empire  deems  it  best  to  provide 
employment  for  the  greatest  possible  number  of  its  subjects. 
At  Goslar,  beautifully  situated  at  the  feet  of  several  of  the 
Hartz  mountains,  we  felt  ourselves,  on  alighting  from  the 
train,  in  the  presence  of  old  imperial  Germany  ;  for  right 
before  us  was  one  of  the  ancient  and  mighty  towers 
strengthening  the  wall,  which  has  now  nearly  disappeared, 
a  tower  which  has  been  transformed  into  part  of  a  hotel. 
Walking  through  the  narrow  streets,  which  we  found  greatly 
improved  since  Heine's  day,  and  not  as  "jagged  as  a  Ber- 
lin hexameter,"  we  noted  the  many  decorated  and  ancient 
houses  and  the  two- towered  Romanesque  churches  which 


114  A    WORLD-PIL  GRIM  A  GE. 

recalled  the  former  magnificence,  when  more  than  fifty  spires 
sprung  up  within  the  imperial  town.  As  we  neared  the  old 
market,  we  met  two  American  friends  who  had  expected  us, 
one  of  whom  had  made  the  whole  journey  thus  far  literally 
in  Heine's  footsteps.  With  me  the  pleasure  of  the  Hartz 
journey  was  largely  due  to  good  companions. 

At  the  Romischer  Kaiser  on  the  old  market  we  found  our 
lodgings.  The  name  of  the  inn  is  enough  to  cast  a  historic 
spell  over  an  imaginative  spirit.  The  German  emperors, 
ten  of  whom  inhabited  the  imperial  palace  in  Goslar, 
were  at  the  head  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  that  empire 
whose  relics  the  great  Napoleon  blew  to  the  winds.  And 
what  a  stretch  it  gives  to  the  fancy  to  remember  that  this 
empire,  which  had  such  a  varied  history,  long  linked  in 
friendly  or  hostile  relations  with  the  Roman  ecclesiastical 
pontiffs,  an  empire  in  whose  majestic  line  are  such  names 
as  Charles  V.,  Maximilian  I.,  Frederick  Barbarossa,  Charle- 
magne, Justinian,  Theodosius,  Constantine,  Marcus  Aure- 
lius,  Hadrian,  — that  this  empire  which  died  only  in  our  own 
century  and  has  been  succeeded  by  something  worthier  and 
grander,  giving  to  the  German  Fatherland  a  genuine  unity 
and  separating  it  from  fierce  and  ambitious  struggles  with 
the  popes  beyond  the  Alps,  was,  as  Professor  Bryce  has 
written,  "  the  same  which  the  crafty  nephew  of  Julius  had 
won  for  himself  against  the  powers  of  the  East  beneath  the 
cliffs  of  Actium." 

During  our  first  night  at  the  Romischer  Kaiser,  one  of 
the  party,  oppressed  with  too  much  history  or  too  much 
supper,  was  seized  with  a  nightmare,  and  his  screams  ter- 
rorized his  neighbors.  A  room-mate  declared  that  he  prob- 
ably dreamed  that  he  had  voted  for  Bryan.  But  the 
dreamer  was  relieved  from  this  imputation  when  the  morn- 
ing mail  brought  him  a  pleasant  letter  from  Major  McKinley. 
America  does  find  its  way  even  to  this  quiet  old  town,  with 
its  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  which  few  of  my  country- 
men ever  see.  On  the  hotel  register  of  last  year  we  found 
the  names  of  three  Philadelphians  who   signed  themselves 


IN  THE  HARTZ  MOUNTAINS.  115 

"  Coxeyites."  Is  there  a  German  professor  living  who 
could  explain  that  name?  At  table-d'hote  one  of  my 
friends,  a  professor  of  Germanics,  was  drawn  into  a  tem- 
perate discussion  of  America  by  the  remarks  of  a  middle- 
aged  German  gentleman,  who  expressed  the  opinion  that 
our  people  were  lacking  in  culture.  He  learned,  however, 
that  in  the  opinion  of  his  table  companion,  who  has  visited 
Germany  seven  times,  and  who  appreciates  the  learning, 
literature,  order,  and  municipal  decency  of  the  Fatherland, 
Americans  do  not  find  themselves  awed  or  overwhelmed  by 
the  superior  civilization  of  this  empire.  On  the  contrary, 
in  what  makes  for  general  enlightenment  and  social  prog- 
ress, and  in  all  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  life, 
America  is  far  in  advance.  To  well-to-do  Americans,  living 
here  seems  rather  primitive,  though  perhaps  not  so  much 
so  as  in  England.  It  was  pleasant  to  hear  these  facts 
stated  in  fine  German.  To  talk  American  politics  in  this 
difficult  language  appeared  to  me  a  noble  accomplishment, 
and  it  was  almost  as  interesting  as  the  experience  of  an 
American  girl  who  received  a  proposal  from  a  German 
student,  and,  while  she  kindly  refused  him,  carried  on  a 
delicate  and  complicated  conversation,  remembering  all 
the  time  her  genders,  prepositions,  endings,  and  separable 
verbs. 

The  sights  of  Goslar  may  well  hold  the  attention  of  those 
who  love  the  picturesque  and  the  old.  One  of  the  most 
curious  houses,  if  not  one  of  the  most  ancient,  is  the  Brust- 
tuch,  now  a  place  of  entertainment,  built  as  a  gentleman's 
residence  early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  adorned  with 
the  most  elaborate  and  humorous  wood-carvings  that  I  have 
seen  on  a  house  in  Germany,  representing  monks,  eagles, 
devils,  apes,  witches,  and  Greek  divinities.  The  old  mar- 
ket and  Rathhaus  drew  our  attention  on  the  very  first  stroll. 
The  huge  copper  water-basin  in  the  centre  of  the  market  is 
familiar  to  all  the  readers  of  Heine.  He  reports  the  legend 
that  the  devil  brought  this  gift  to  the  town  in  the  night- 
time in  some  unknown  antiquity.     "  Then  the  people  were 


I  1 6  A    WORLD-PIL  GRIM  A  GE. 

stupid,  and  the  devil  was  also  stupid,  and  they  exchanged 
gifts."  In  the  Rathhaus  we  saw  a  fine  collection  of  old 
books,  charters,  thumb-screws,  and  other  instruments  of 
torture,  and  also  a  wooden  cage  called  the  Beisskatze,  where 
shrews  were  formerly  imprisoned.  Do  not  the  feminine 
biting-cats  of  to-day  meet  much  more  lenient  treatment? 
Beyond  the  Rathhaus  are  the  towers  of  the  Marktkirche, 
where  on  Sunday  morning  we,  with  one  hundred  soldiers, 
fifty  men,  and  five  hundred  women,  heard  a  loud  and 
earnest  evangelic  sermon  from  a  minister  whose  face,  beard, 
black  robe,  and  great  white  ruff  made  him  look  like  a  por- 
trait of  Governor  John  Winthrop  of  Massachusetts.  We 
noted  with  much  interest  the  Guild  House  on  the  left  of 
the  market,  old  as  Columbus.  It  is  now  an  inn.  As  we 
saw  the  statues  of  the  eight  German  emperors  which  adorn 
it,  we  thought  of  Heine's  irreverent  remark  that  they  looked 
like  roasted  university  "  Pedells." 

Of  course  we  visited  what  is  left  of  the  old  cathedral, 
which  was  founded  in  the  eleventh  century  and  taken  down 
early  in  the  nineteenth.  It  is  now  an  ecclesiastical  mu- 
seum, where  we  saw,  among  other  things,  the  horrible 
wooden  crucifix  of  which  Heine  speaks,  "whose  proper 
place  is  in  an  anatomical  lecture-room,  rather  than  in  the 
house  of  God."  There,  too,  is  a  famous  oblong  reliquary 
of  brass,  supported  by  four  squat  figures  and  once  adorned 
with  precious  stones.  It  was  carried  off  to  Paris  in  the 
Napoleonic  wars,  and  when  it  was  returned  the  jewels  had 
mysteriously  disappeared  !  We  walked  along  what  is  left 
of  the  old  wall,  and  marked  the  mighty  round  towers  which 
remain,  one  of  which  is  now  a  restaurant,  another  a  stable, 
another  a  fine  residence,  surrounded  by  gardens,  and  the 
fourth,  as  I  have  already  said,  part  of  a  modern  hotel.  We 
saw  the  rather  interesting  Romanesque  churches  of  the 
town ;  we  entered  what  remains  of  an  old  convent,  full  of 
antiquities,  and  now  very  appropriately  a  home  for  aged 
women.  We  took  our  refreshment  in  the  Stadt  Park,  and 
noted  there  a  remarkable  sign   in  six  lines,  which  records 


IN  THE  HARTZ  MOUNTAINS.  WJ 

the  present  faith  of  Germany,  or,  at  least,  one  indubitable 
article  of  her  popular  creed,  showing  that  agnosticism  is  not 
universal.  Rather  literally  translated,  it  reads  as  follows  : 
"  Whether  I  shall  be  alive  on  the  morrow,  I  verily  do  not 
know.  But  if  I  am  living  on  the  morrow,  I  am  altogether 
certain  that  I  shall  take  another  drink." 

Some  of  us  late  on  a  glorious  afternoon  climbed  to  the 
tower  on  the  Steinberg,  passing  on  the  way  the  largest  flock 
of  goats  we  had  ever  seen ;  and  from  the  summit  we  gained 
a  superb  view  of  the  compact,  red  and  gray  roofed  little 
city,  with  such  a  long  history.  Beyond  on  the  mountain 
sides  we  saw  the  debris  of  the  famous  silver  and  gold  mines, 
which  drew  the  emperors  hither  nearly  a  thousand  years 
ago.  The  mines  are  still  worked  for  these  and  other  valu- 
able products.  But  the  amounts  uncovered,  at  least  of  the 
precious  metals,  are  small,  and  the  ratio  of  the  silver  to 
gold  is  about  four  hundred  to  one. 

But  the  crown  of  all  interest  in  Goslar  is  the  Kaiserhaus, 
the  oldest  historical  secular  building  of  Germany,  recently 
restored.  It  was  begun  by  the  Emperor  Henry  III.  before 
the  Norman  conquest ;  and  ten  successive,  and  not  always 
successful,  kaisers  lived  here.  In  this  palace  was  born 
Henry  IV.,  whose  checkered  career  is  one  of  the  chief  ro- 
mances of  German  history.  It  was  he  who  stood  in  the 
snows  of  Canossa,  and  who  afterward  banished  the  refrac- 
tory pontiff.  It  was  he  who  was  imprisoned  by  his  son  at 
Bingen  on  the  Rhine,  and  who,  on  his  deathbed,  sent  word 
to  his  heir :  "  Thine  inheritance  is  but  small,  for  thou  hast 
left  me  nothing."  And  here  was  seen  the  form  of  Fred- 
erick Barbarossa,  who  for  thirty-eight  years  lorded  it  over 
the  German  Empire,  from  the  borders  of  Denmark  to  the 
banks  of  the  Po.  It  was  he  who,  having  fought  bravely  in 
his  youth  in  the  Holy  Land,  in  his  old  age  defeated  the 
infidels  at  Iconium,  and  died  near  Tarsus  without  seeing 
the  Holy  City.  His  gigantic  equestrian  statue,  with  that 
of  the  Emperor  William  I.,  will  soon  stand  before  the 
Kaiserhaus. 


Il8  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

The  main  attraction  of  this  impressive  building  is  the 
great  hall,  where  we  saw  not  only  the  famous  old  Kaiser- 
stuhl,  but  also  the  magnificent  historical  paintings  which 
decorate  its  walls.  The  chief  among  these  is  the  allegori- 
cal representation  of  the  resurrection  of  the  empire.  The 
first,  however,  in  the  series  is  the  legend  of  the  Sleeping 
Beauty,  and  the  last  is  the  awakening  of  Barbarossa  out  of 
his  magic  slumber  in  the  subterranean  heart  of  the  moun- 
tain. It  was  the  national  tradition,  of  which  more  than 
one  poet  has  sung,  that  Barbarossa  did  not  die,  but  that, 
plunged  into  sleep  beneath  Mount  Kyffhauser,  he  would 
yet  reappear  and  bring  back  a  day  of  golden  glory  to  the 
German  nation.  The  legend  has  proved  to  be  history. 
The  brazen  doors  have  opened,  and  Barbarossa's  true  suc- 
cessor, girded  by  his  loyal  knights,  is  crowned  amid  up- 
lifted and  flashing  swords,  —  if  not  in  Aix,  according  to  the 
prophecy,  at  Versailles,  where  the  foundations  of  the  Holy 
German  Empire  were  laid  anew.  Had  Heine  lived  in  our 
time,  perhaps  he  would  have  been  a  patriot. 

From  Goslar  we  sent  most  of  our  baggage  by  packet- 
post  back  to  Gdttingen,  and  set  off  late  one  perfect  after- 
noon on  the  beginning  of  our  tramp  together.  Fine  were 
the  views  we  gained  of  the  old  imperial  town,  as  we 
climbed  the  slopes  east  of  it.  Probably  no  man  ever 
had  more  cheerful  and  congenial  companions  in  a  moun- 
tain trip  than  were  mine  in  the  walk  from  Goslar  to  Harz- 
burg,  and  from  Harzburg  the  next  day  to  the  top  of  the 
Brocken  and  down  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Use  to 
Usenburg.  The  Bodethal,  which  I  have  not  seen,  is 
usually  regarded  as  the  finest  and  most  striking  feature 
of  the  Hartz  mountains,  but  parts  of  the  Okerthal,  which 
we  did  see,  were  wild  and  picturesque  enough  as  we 
looked  down  from  the  lofty  road  through  openings  in  the 
forest. 

Heine  says  that  nature,  like  a  poet,  knows  how  to  pro- 
duce the  greatest  effects  with  the  smallest  means.  These 
are  only  sun,  trees,  flowers,  water,  and  love.     "  And,  truly, 


IN  THE  HARTZ  MOUNTAINS.  1 19 

if  the  last  is  lacking  in  the  heart  of  the  spectator,"  he  goes 
on  to  say,  "  everything  is  spoiled ;  the  sun  is  only  a  body 
so  many  miles  in  diameter,  the  trees  are  good  for  fire- 
wood, the  flowers  are  classified  according  to  their  stamens, 
and  the  water  is  wet."  One  of  the  curious  things  which 
we  noticed  in  our  conversation  was  this,  that  Heine  so 
often  quoted  from  us  !  Many  a  little  village,  with  its  red 
roofs  peeping  out  of  the  surrounding  green  of  the  fir  forests, 
appeared  to  us  like  a  moss  rose ;  but  Heine  had  seen  the 
same  picture  and  used  the  same  language,  and  the  musical 
bells,  sounding  up  from  far-away  paths  and  from  invisible 
herds,  that  delighted  us,  are  tinkling  all  through  the 
Harzreise. 

Coming  down  to  the  level  of  the  Chaussee  that  leads  from 
Oker  to  Harzburg,  we  refreshed  ourselves,  with  a  large 
company  of  fellow  mortals,  at  one  of  those  convenient 
places,  half  hotel  and  half  garden,  where  the  German 
seems  to  be  able  to  get  more  contentment  and  happiness 
out  of  a  few  pfennigs  than  many  of  our  rich  American 
families  at  Saratoga  and  Newport  extract  from  fabulous 
fortunes.  The  Chaussee  which  I  have  just  mentioned  is  a 
glorious  track  for  the  wheelmen,  but  we  made  our  way  to 
Harzburg  by  another  road,  either  on  foot  or,  as  one  of  my 
companions  became  foot-sore,  by  a  convenient  carriage. 
The  night  was  spent  at  the  Zur  Linde,  a  very  modest 
hotel,  which  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  has  belonged 
to  the  same  family. 

We  were  out  of  bed,  through  breakfast,  and  on  the  road 
by  seven  o'clock  the  next  morning,  with  bodies  "  rested  by 
slumber  and  hearts  freshened  and  light,"  for  the  climb 

"  Up  through  the  tall  dark  firs, 
Up  by  the  stream  with  its  huge 
Moss-hung  boulders  and  thin 
Musical  water,  half  hid, 
Up  o'er  the  rock-strewn  slope," 

not  to  Heine's  stone-roofed  hut  at  the  top  of  the  Brocken, 
—  that  is  now  gone,  —  but  to  a  rather  spacious  caravansary, 


120  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

where  nearly  five  hundred  souls  were  that  day  to  enjoy 
good  dinners  and  fine,  far  views. 

With  our  light  luggage  strapped  upon  our  backs  or  held 
in  our  hands,  we  made  our  way  out  of  the  long  straggling 
town  with  its  numerous  hotels  and  attractive  villas,  a  town 
whose  suburbs  reminded  us  somewhat  of  the  play-grounds 
at  Saratoga.  Above  us  rose  the  fine  Burgberg,  where  once 
stood  a  castle  of  Henry  IV.,  and  where  now  stands,  in 
honor  of  Bismarck,  a  white  obelisk  on  which  are  the 
words  which  the  chancellor  uttered  in  the  German  par- 
liament twenty-four  years  ago :  "  We  will  not  go  to 
Canossa." 

It  is  a  four  hours'  climb  to  the  summit  of  the  Brocken 
from  Harzburg,  but  we  gave  ourselves  five  and  a  half  hours 
in  which  to  make  it,  and  even  then  we  beat  some  English 
people  who  started  ahead  of  us.  The  leisure  gave  us  op- 
portunities of  enjoying  here  and  there  views  of  valley  or 
village  or  wide,  sunny  fields  dashed  with  cloud  shadows, 
—  views  really  more  beautiful  than  is  the  huge  pano- 
rama which  one  gets  from  the  tall  stone  tower  on  the 
summit. 

But  our  progress  upward,  to  tell  the  whole  truth,  was 
somewhat  delayed  by  the  frequent  fierce  battles  between 
the  philologists  of  our  party,  Professors  Hatfield  and  Scott, 
men  who  are  able  to  trace  the  "  panting  syllable  "  through 
German,  Greek,  and  Sanscrit  hiding-places  back  to  Noah's 
ark.  One  sad  result  of  these  wordy  strifes  was  a  growing 
disposition  to  play  with  language.  I  try  hard  to  forget 
that  even  the  flowers  served  ignoble  uses.  We  saw  the 
sides  of  the  hills  covered  with  the  red  bells  of  the  digitalis, 
so  useful  in  stimulating  the  action  of  the  human  heart. 
Think  of  any  one  daring  to  say,  — 

"We  have  seen  digitalis  enough  this  morning  to  keep  the 
Hartz  beating  forever  !  " 

At  Goslar  our  shoes  had  received  a  "  shine  "  such  as  we 
had  never  before  seen  in  Germany.  We  were  grateful  to 
the  Romischer  Kaiser   for  this ;    but   why  should    one    of 


IN  THE  HAKTZ  MOUNTAINS.  121 

my  companions  venture  the  explanation  that  some  remnants 
of  the  old  imperial  polish  were  still  left  ? 

Even  this,  however,  does  not  fully  account  for  our  slow 
climb.  There  are  many  wayside  resorts  on  this  famous 
path,  and  hunger  summoned  us  to  three  more  breakfasts 
before  the  morning  was  over.  And  who  can  forget  or  pass 
by  the  chocolate  disgorgers  (ten  pfennigs  in  a  slot)  with 
which  Germany  is  continually  tempting  the  traveller?  One 
learned  member  of  our  party,  who  sought  this  sweet  food 
for  himself,  usually  dropped  his  ten-pfennig  piece  in  vain ; 
but  the  president  of  the  club,  who  was  buying  chocolate  for 
his  absent  children,  was  always  successful.  And  finally  the 
photographer,  whom  all  parties  now  have  with  them,  made 
us  sit  by  some  shining  brook,  or  on  the  warm,  sunny  edge 
of  the  forest,  while  he  captured  his  companions  for  future 
home  consumption.  One  of  the  photographs  and  one  of 
the  breakfasts  were  taken  near  a  cool  wayside  spring.  We 
sat  beneath  a  silken  American  flag,  fastened  to  the  limb  of 
a  fir-tree,  and  had  much  earnest  talk  of  the  fate  of  our  dear 
Fatherland  far,  far  away,  and  now  passing  through  one  of 
the  great  crises  of  its  history. 

We  saw  no"  deer  in  our  morning's  climb  and  no  Hartz 
canaries,  but  we  passed  a  few  foresters  and  not  a  few  fellow- 
climbers  toward  the  summit-  Thankful  that  the  day  was  a 
fine  mixture  of  sunshine  and  shadow,  we  gave  ourselves  up 
to  the  simple  pleasures  of  out-of-doors  existence  and  exer- 
cise. The  pure,  bracing  air,  the  blue  heaven  flecked  with 
clouds,  and  the  waving  green  sea  of  the  forest  gave  us  some 
of  the  delights  which  Heine  enjoyed.  I  have  rarely  seen 
such  noble  beeches,  alternating  with  the  pine  and  fir  forests, 
which  here  and  there  clasped  their  great  roots  around 
enormous  boulders,  or  thrust  them  beneath  these  huge  and 
mossy  stones.  A  good  part  of  the  region  through  which  we 
passed  might  be  well  described  as  the  wooded  area  of  the 
island  of  Mackinac,  set  on  edge. 

But  trees  disappeared,  and  we  at  last  reached  the  twenty 
acres  or  more  of  stony  pasture  which  make  the  top  of  the 


122  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Brocken.  There  lay  Ilsenburg  at  our  feet,  and  farther 
away,  Wernigerode  and  the  lofty  Schloss  of  the  count  of 
that  name,  to  whom  belongs  this  mountain,  or  at  least  the 
summit  of  it,  whose  crowded  hotel  yields  him  ample  rev- 
enues. At  Wernigerode,  as  well  as  on  the  Brocken,  is  a 
Witches'  Dancing  Place.  We  sat  down,  with  a  great 
number,  to  a  table-d'hote  dinner,  in  which  nothing  —  least 
of  all,  appetite  —  was  lacking.  After  this  repast  two  of  us 
climbed  upon  the  Devil's  Pulpit,  composed  of  several  huge 
blocks  of  granite,  which  mark  the  meeting-place  of  the 
witches  who  assemble  here  on  the  evening  of  May  day. 
This  evening  is  called  Walpurgis  night.  Walpurgis,  the 
female  saint  of  German  legend,  is  believed  to  have  led  the 
Saxons  to  embrace  Christianity ;  and  on  the  evening  of  her 
festival  the  witches  keep  Sabbath  on  the  Brocken  height, 
dancing  wildly  and  making  weird  music  on  the  ribs  of  the 
old  crag.  It  is  to  this  spot  that  Mephistopheles,  in  Goethe's 
drama,  transports  Faust  in  the  night-time  to  witness  strange 
and  awful  scenes.  The  fires  rising  from  the  mines  in  the  hills 
around  illuminate  the  palace  of  Mammon  gloriously,  and 
then  the  tempest  crashes  through  the  forest  and  the  trunks 
are  shattered.  The  owls  fly  out  in  affright  when  the  col- 
umns of  the  evergreen  castles  of  the  hills  are  split,  and  the 
crags  are  shaken  and  voices  neither  of  fountains  nor  of 
midnight  wolves  break  upon  his  startled  ear. 

"  Dost  thou  not  hear  ? 

Strange  accents  are  ringing 
Aloft,  afar,  anear ; 

The  witches  are  singing  ! 
The  torrent  of  a  raging  wizard's  song 
Streams  the  whole  mountain  along." 

We  saw  and  heard  no  witches,  perhaps  because  we  did 
not  remain  until  darkness  covered  the  summit.  After  rest- 
ing two  or  three  hours,  we  walked  down  the  mountain  by 
another  path,  through  the  beautiful  Ilsenthal  to  Ilsenburg, 
where  the  party  divided.  But  the  finest  part  of  our  outing 
was  the  walk  through  the  Ilsenthal.     Before  reaching  it,  we 


IN  THE  HARTZ  MOUNTAINS.  123 

had  plunged  down  a  very  rough  path  and  had   come  in 

sight  of  some  remarkable  natural  formations,  which  to  our 

stalwart  young  Greek  looked  like  massive  cyclopean  walls. 

The  valley  of  the  Use  is  a  pleasant  haunt  for  the  fairies, 

who  love  its  forest  shades,  its  picturesque  waterfalls,  and  its 

huge  moss-covered  stones.     Our  tramp  led  us  for  several 

miles  along  the  legend-haunted  brook,  and  the   scene  at 

times  was  so  beautiful  that  garrulousness  was  soothed  into 

silence,  —  that  deep,  reverent  silence  whose  peace  and  joy 

are  not  far  from  tears.      Heine,  pausing  and  peering  down 

between  the  great  stones  into  some  glassy  pool,  felt  that  he 

could  hear  the  heart-beat  of  the  mountain. 

Many  centuries  have  passed  since  the  noble  lover  of  the 

Princess  Use  was  foully  enchanted,  and,  according  to  one 

legend,  the  beautiful  desolate  maiden  betook  herself  to  this 

rushing  mountain  rivulet  with  which  the  poet's  fancy  now 

identifies  her,  and  within  which  she  still  awaits  her  beloved. 

At  the  foot  of  the  valley  we  saw  the  splendid  crag  of  Ilsen- 

stein,  where  once  her  palace  stood,  and  where,  as  Heine 

sings,,  her  heart  yearns   for  love,  wooing  with  words  like 

these  :  — 

"  With  ever-flowing  fountains 
I  '11  cool  thy  weary  brow  ; 
Thou  'It  lose  amid  the  rippling 
The  cares  that  grieve  thee  now. 
As  round  the  Emperor  Henry, 
My  arms  round  thee  shall  fall ; 
I  held  his  ears  —  he  heard  not 
The  trumpet 's  warning  call." 

But  the  spell  of  all  such  enchantments  and  superstitions 
is  broken  by  the  huge  iron  cross  surmounting  the  Ilsenstein, 
raised  to  the  honor  of  German  soldiers  who  fell  in  the 
Napoleonic  wars.  One  of  our  company  climbed  five  hun- 
dred feet  to  stand  where  this  memorial  gleamed  before  our 
eyes  in  the  setting  sun.  And  so  I  close  these  pictures  of 
our  Hartz  journey,  with  a  vision  of  the  Use,  gliding  down 
"  among  oaks  and  beechen  coverts  and  copse  of  hazels 
green,"  pouring  her  petulant  and  immortal  youth  in  a  thou- 


124  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

sand  white  water-jets  that  seem  the  counterpart  of  human 
life  and  gladness,  while  above  the  shining  stream  rises  the 
shining  crag  with  the  cross,  bold  type  of  the  divine  love 
which,  while  transfiguring  earth  with  a  new  beauty,  lifts  the 
thought  and  hope  to  unwasting  spheres  beyond. 


CHAPTER  X. 

IN   CLASSIC   GERMANY EISENACH. 

'"PHE  lecture-rooms  are  closed  in  Gottingen.  The  sum- 
mer  semester  is  over.  The  students,  amid  much 
frolicking  and  beer-drinking,  have  left  the  town.  The 
American  Colony  is  dissolving ;  some  of  its  members  with 
Doctors'  degrees  attained  are  off  for  America.  Others  are 
tramping  in  Switzerland,  England,  or  the  Hartz. 

I  have  left  the  quiet  and  studious  shades  of  Gottingen  for 
an  eighteen  days'  ramble  with  three  of  my  children  through 
some  of  the  chief  historic  towns  and  cities  of  Germany. 
Our  trip  is  to  include  a  visit  to  Eisenach,  Weimar,  Jena, 
Leipsic,  Dresden,  Wittenberg,  Berlin,  and  Hanover,  and  I 
have  purchased  for  this  journey  four  Rundreise,  or  round- 
trip  tickets,  good  for  forty-five  days,  available  on  fast  trains, 
and  allowing  us  to  stop  over  where  we  please.  It  may 
interest  my  readers  to  learn  that  the  rates  of  travel  on  the 
German  railways,  which  are  owned  and  wisely  conducted  by 
the  government,  are  for  each  kilometer  travelled  —  and  a 
kilometer  is  about  three-fifths  of  a  mile  —  two  pfennigs  for 
fourth-class,  four  pfennigs  for  third-class,  six  pfennigs  for 
second-class,  and  eight  pfennigs  for  first-class.  A  pfennig 
is  about  a  quarter  of  a  cent.  I  have  come  to  have  a  feel- 
ing of  great  security  on  German  railways,  and  I  learn  that 
this  well-conducted  system  is  very  profitable  to  the  Prussian 
government,  yielding  an  annual  net  income  of  more  than 
twenty  million  dollars.  Availing  themselves  of  these  cheap 
rates,  the  Germans  are  coming  to  be  great  travellers  in  their 
own  country,  and  this  travel  is  an  important  element  in  the 


126  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

national  culture  and  a  very  considerable  force  in  fostering 
the  national  spirit.  Rundreise  tickets  are  twenty-five  per 
cent  less  than  are  the  usual  rates. 

The  very  slow  train  in  which  we  crept  for  two  hours 
towards  Bebra  gave  us  time  to  see  every  bundle  of  wheat 
which  the  women  were  harvesting  in  the  golden  fields,  to 
admire  every  forest  and  hill  and  winding  stream  and  moss- 
rose  of  a  village  which  the  bright  day  flashed  in  through  the 
car-windows.  After  changing  trains  at  Bebra  we  soon  came 
in  sight  of  the  famous  Thuringian  forest,  and  then  gained 
our  first  glimpse  of  the  Wartburg,  which  for  eight  hundred 
and  seventy  years  has  crowned  the  noblest  of  Thuringian 
heights.  Its  founder,  Lewis  the  Springer,  who  got  his 
name  from  the  bold  leap  which  he  made  from  the  window 
of  his  prison,  exclaimed,  when  he  came  in  sight  of  this 
eminence,  "  This  is  Wart  Berg,  I  will  make  it  my  Wart 
Burg  !  "  Our  hearts  gave  a  genuine  German  throb  as  we 
saw  the  two  towers  and  long  walls  on  this  famous  height, 
associated  not  only  with  the  exploits  of  the  old  Landgraves, 
a  race  now  extinct,  men  whose  bands  had  fought  with  the 
Moslem  in  the  Holy  Land,  but  also  with  the  strifes  of  the 
Minnesingers,  with  the  Christly  deeds  of  St.  Elizabeth,  and 
with  the  heroic  solitude  and  prodigious  toils  of  Martin 
Luther. 

The  little  city  of  Eisenach,  with  more  than  twenty  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  now  belongs  to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Weimar, 
the  venerable  Carl  Alexander,  who  has  signalized  his  life  by 
the  restoration  and  adornment  of  the  Wartburg.  Among 
other  claims  to  consideration,  Eisenach  is  known  as  the 
birthplace  of  Sebastian  Bach,  whose  bronze  statue  now 
stands  in  front  of  the  Marktkirche.  As  we  visited  the  house 
where  this  amazing  genius  was  born,  I  could  but  remember 
the  hours  in  which  I  had  listened  to  his  Passion  music  in 
America,  and  I  felt  that  there  was  a  spiritual  connection 
between  Luther's  gift  of  the  gospel  to  the  German  Father- 
land and  the  great  music  which  the  composer  has  wrought 
into  the  story  of  Redemption. 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  1 27 

We  spent  the  night  at  the  inn,  which  lies  snugly  along- 
side of  the  famous  Wartburg,  looking  down 

"  Over  the  pleasant  neighborhoods, 
Over  the  vast  Thuringian  woods, 
With  flash  of  river  and  gloom  of  trees, 
With  castles  crowning  the  dizzy  heights, 
And  farms  and  pastoral  delights, 
And  the  morning  pouring  everywhere 
Its  golden  glory  on  the  air." 

I  could  imagine  Luther,  as  he  climbed  this  noble  hill  and 
laid  his  hand  on  its  granite  sides,  and  finally  found  himself 
safe  within  the  castle  walls  at  the  summit,  exclaiming  over 
and  over  again,  "  Ein'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott !  "  As  one 
murmurs  Martin  Luther's  sublime  hymn,  and  thinks  of  the 
work  which  he  wrought  during  his  temporary  seclusion  from 
his  enemies,  he  realizes  anew  the  strength  and  moral  majesty 
of  the  man,  and  the  mighty  hold  which  he  retains  on  the 
heart  of  a  great  people.  The  Germans  always  speak  of  the 
Wartburg  with  patriotic  enthusiasm,  and  more  than  sixty 
thousand  visitors  last  year  found  their  way  to  this  oldest  and 
dearest  of  German  fortresses  and  mountain  castles.  They 
summon  before  their  minds  the  national  hero  who,  in  the 
annals  of  universal  history,  "  closed  up  the  Middle  Ages  and 
ushered  in  the  new  time." 

The  Grand  Duke  of  Weimar  lives  here  only  now  and 
then ;  but  when  he  receives  the  German  Emperor,  it  is 
always  at  the  Wartburg.  Between  walls  of  rock,  now  cov- 
ered with  moss,  we  walked  the  road  that  leads  to  the  castle 
entrance,  where  German  soldiers  keep  watch  and  ward.  A 
few  harmless  cannon  are  placed  on  the  terrace  in  front  of 
the  gate,  and,  standing  by  them,  we  look  down  into  some 
of  the  most  beautiful  of  wooded  valleys.  Entering  the  for- 
tress, which  is  also  a  palace,  we  discover  that  it  is  of  con- 
siderable extent,  and  was  built  at  various  times,  in  such  an 
elongated  form  that  no  one  picture  can  possibly  give  its  en- 
tire construction.  The  sacred  place  —  for  so  it  seems  to 
the  followers  of  Luther  and  to  the  devotees  of  St.  Elizabeth 


128  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

—  is  beautifully  kept.  Flowers,  vines,  arbors,  picturesque 
iron  gargoyles,  and  various  sculptures  here  and  there  attract 
the  eye.  Above  the  taller  tower  gleams  the  golden  cross,  a 
gift  from  the  Austrian  Emperor  in  memory  of  St.  Elizabeth, 

—  Elizabeth  of  Hungary,  a  real  woman  and  a  real  saint, 
wife  of  the  Landgrave  Ludwig  the  Clement,  to  whom  she 
was  married  early  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

We  were  first  shown,  in  what  was  called  the  Landgrave's 
House,  the  halls  and  rooms  which  have  been  restored  and 
elaborately  decorated.  We  were  conducted  by  the  guide, 
whose  German  was  far  more  intelligible  than  the  mumbled 
English  that  one  hears  in  Windsor  Castle,  to  the  Elizabeth 
gallery,  where  the  frescos  recall  the  Seven  Works  of  Mercy 
associated  with  the  lustrous  saint,  who  died  in  her  twenty- 
fourth  year,  and  was  very  soon  canonized  by  the  Pope. 
Many  will  recall  the  legend,  which  Story  has  told  in  verse,  of 
how  the  pious  Elizabeth,  forbidden  by  her  lord  to  carry 
bread  to  the  starving  poor,  was  discovered  by  him  with  her 
mantle  filled  with  loaves,  and  how  she  in  that  hour  of  bitter 
pain  prayed  that  the  loaves  might  be  changed  into  roses,  and 
how  her  prayer  was  answered.  In  the  Landgrave's  room  we 
saw  the  frescos  which  called  back  the  stirring  scenes  in  the 
lives  of  the  old  lords  of  this  palace.  One  of  the  pictures 
brings  before  us  Ludwig  the  Iron,  hearing  from  the  black- 
smith how  oppressive  of  the  people  were  the  masters  the 
Landgrave  had  set  over  them.  And  this  discovery  led 
Ludwig  to  yoke  those  oppressors  four  at  a  time  to  the 
plough,  teaching  them  as  they  dragged  it  through  the  field 
how  the  poor  had  suffered,  whom  they  had  unmercifully 
crushed.  Of  this  same  Ludwig  the  story  is  told  that,  when 
the  Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa  had  admired  his  castle, 
but  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  needed  more  walls  around 
the  inhabited  part  of  it,  the  Landgrave  answered  that  he 
could  have  walls  built  when  he  needed  them,  —  indeed,  in 
less  than  three  days.  Sending  out  a  secret  embassy  to  all 
his  vassals  in  Thuringia  to  hasten  to  the  Wartburg  in  the 
night-time  wearing  their  best  armor,  he  had  the  pleasure 


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IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  1 29 

the  next  morning  to  inform  the  Emperor  that  the  wall  was 
already  finished.  Barbarossa  crossed  himself,  expecting  some 
miracle  of  the  black  art ;  but  when  he  saw  a  solid  phalanx  of 
knights,  with  the  glancing  of  their  swords  and  the  splendor 
of  their  armor,  he  exclaimed :  "  In  my  whole  life  have  I 
never  seen  a  better  or  a  dearer  wall.  Verily,  trusty  men 
form  the  best  bulwark  !  " 

More  interesting  than  the  memorials  of  the  Landgraves  is 
the  hall  in  which  took  place,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  the  contests  between  the  Minnesingers,  noble 
German  minstrels,  who  sang  of  love  and  beauty,  —  a  strife 
made  familiar  to  millions  by  the  scenes  in  "  Tannhauser  " 
and  by  Walter's  prize  song  in  Wagner's  "  Meistersinger," 
where  the  scene,  however,  is  placed  in  Nuremberg.  Sen- 
tences from  these  old-time  songs  are  written  upon  the  walls, 
where  one  may  also  see  the  modern  painting  which  repro- 
duces this  mediaeval  event,  making  use,  in  German  fashion, 
of  portraits  of  Kaulbach,  Wagner,  Liszt,  and  others.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  estimate  how  large  an  influence  over 
Germany's  unparalleled  musical  genius  and  development 
came  from  the  traditions  of  those  old  minstrel  contests. 
The  Wartburg,  which  is  now  a  symbol  of  German  unity,  was 
also  in  reality  a  not  inconsiderable  means  of  attaining  it. 
In  181 7,  two  years  after  the  Napoleonic  wars,  students  from 
every  part  of  Germany  gathered  here  for  an  enthusiastic 
festival ;  and  the  university  students  had  no  small  influence 
in  that  national  movement,  which  culminated  amid  flashing 
swords  at  the  imperial  coronation  in  Versailles. 

But  we  found  ourselves  closer  still  to  the  heart  of  Ger- 
many when  we  entered  the  Luther  room,  in  that  part  of 
the  castle  called  the  Ritterhaus.  After  visiting  a  splendid 
collection  of  mediaeval  armor,  containing  several  fine  his- 
torical pieces,  we  were  taken  into  the  small  apartment 
where  the  reformer  did  perhaps  the  greatest  work  of  his 
life.  All  remember  that,  returning  from  the  Imperial  Diet 
at  Worms,  where  in  the  presence  of  Charles  V.  he  re- 
fused to  retract  and  deny  his  conscience  and  convictions, 

9 


130  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

he  was  intercepted  by  his  friend  the  Elector  Frederick 
the  Wise,  and  conducted  on  the  fourth  of  May,  15  21,  to 
the  Wartburg,  where  he  remained  till  the  sixth  of  March 
of  the  following  year.  Here  he  was  known  as  "Junker 
Georg,"  and  as  a  young  nobleman  he  wore  the  armor 
which  is  exhibited  in  the  Luther  room.  Now  and  then 
he  went  hunting,  with  the  other  dwellers  in  the  castle  ;  but 
his  mighty  spirit  found  no  joy  or  relief  in  the  killing  of 
hares.  He  felt  that  there  was  bigger  and  worthier  game 
waiting  destruction  from  that  sword  of  the  Spirit  which  he 
was  then  sharpening.  We  saw  the  table  at  which  he  sat 
toiling  over  his  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  the  footstool  — 
a  huge  vertebra  from  a  mammoth  —  on  which  his  feet 
rested,  the  bed  on  which  he  lay  down,  his  book-case,  letters 
that  he  had  written,  his  portrait  by  his  friend  Lucas  Cranach, 
portraits  of  his  father,  mother,  and  wife,  and  the  famous  ink- 
stains  on  the  plaster  of  the  wall  (faithfully  renewed)  to 
show  where  he  had  hurled  his  ink-bottle  at  the  tempting 
devil !  Luther  put  his  ink  to  better  use  than  that.  With 
it  he  made  "  God  talk  German."  He  gave  a  great  people 
the  whole  Bible,  which  they  read  to-day,  the  standard  of  the 
German  tongue,  the  book  which  preserved  the  only  unity 
which  they  kept  for  many  years,  —  the  unity  of  language, 
literature,  and  thought.  We  looked  out  of  the  windows 
from  which  he  so  often  saw  the  stars  and  the  green  hills, 
and  standing  by  which  his  strong  heart  often  yearned  for 
companionship  with  friends  and  battles  with  enemies  in  the 
great  world  of  his  time.  When  at  last  he  did  go  forth,  it 
was  with  a  weapon  in  his  hand  invincible  for  the  pulling 
down  of  strongholds.  After  leaving  Luther's  room  we 
climbed  the  south  tower,  from  which  one  may  see  the 
Horselberg,  holding  Tannhauser's  Grotto  of  Venus,  and  we 
lingered  for  a  long  while,  enraptured  by  the  wondrous  scene, 
touching  every  noblest  fibre  of  sentiment,  faith,  imagination, 
and  memory,  a  scene  over  which  the  light  of  closing  day 
flung  a  magic  glory.  Reluctantly  we  left  our  Mount  of 
Vision,  and  descended  to  the  St.  Nicolas  Church.     Near  it 


IN  CLASSIC   GERMANY.  131 

is  the  great  Luther  monument,  erected  last  year,  in  com- 
memoration of  the  historic  imprisonment  at  the  Wartburg. 
The  Augustinian  monk,  looking  himself  like  a  mighty  castle 
in  his  strength,  holds  in  his  hands  the  Bible,  and  seems  to 
say  in  proud  defiance,  "  Here  is  something  mightier  than 
Pope  and  Church  and  Emperor."  One  of  the  bas-reliefs 
represents  him  translating  the  Scriptures ;  another  shows 
"Junker  Georg,"  a  bearded  young  nobleman  with  his  cross- 
bow, resting  from  his  hunting,  and  buried  in  profound 
thought.  And  still  another  shows  him  as  a  little  boy  leaving 
Frau  Ursula  Cotta's  home  for  the  Eisenach  school.  We 
visited  the  house  of  the  Cotta  family,  and  the  little  room 
where  young  Martin  once  slept,  never  dreaming  that  one 
day  it  would  be  filled  with  memorials  of  him  and  become  a 
pilgrim-shrine  to  the  nations.  In  the  St.  Nicolas  Church, 
which  has  been  splendidly  restored,  and  is  decorated  with 
the  forms  of  prophets,  apostles,  and  evangelists,  the  figure 
of  Martin  Luther  looks  at  us  from  a  window  in  the  apse,  and 
we  felt  his  presence  very  near  when  with  the  large  congre- 
gation we  sang  the  hymn  which  says,  "  Thy  Word  makes 
soul  and  body  strong." 

As  from  the  train  I  caught  a  last  glimpse  of  the  Wartburg, 
it  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  mountain  which  wonderfully 
symbolized  the  three  abiding  virtues,  faith,  hope,  and  love. 
There  the  Minnesingers  had  sung  of  earthly  love.  There 
had  been  shaped  the  forces  which  had  created  the  expec- 
tation, or  at  least  had  furnished  the  ground  of  hope,  for 
national  unity  and  regeneration.  There  the  great  battle 
of  faith  had  been  fought  out  in  one  man's  soul,  and  the 
victory  of  faith  made  possible.  There  the  beautiful  minis- 
tries of  the  saintly  Elizabeth  had  revealed  the  spirit  of  that 
charity  which  towers  over  all,  like  the  cross  on  the  highest 
summit  of  the  Wartburg,  that  charity  dear  alike  to  Catholic 
and  Reformer,  so  that  the  old  castle,  full  of  such  inspirations 
and  noble  memories  to  the  Protestant,  appeared  to  me  also 
a  prophecy,  both  of  the  triumph  of  the  pure  Gospel  and  of 
the  ultimate  reunion  of  Christendom. 


CHAPTER  XL 

IN   CLASSIC    GERMANY  —  WEIMAR,    JENA,    LEIPSIC,    DRESDEN, 

WITTENBERG. 

'"PHE  train  carried  us  eastward  through  Erfurt,  in  whose 
■*■    university,  now  consumed,  Luther  found  the  light  of 
the  Gospel,  and  reached  Weimar,  the  Athens  of  Germany, 
in  time  for  table  d'hote  at  the  Erbprinz  Hotel. 

You  feel  at  once  that  the  little  city  of  the  Grand  Duke 
Carl  Alexander  has  a  proud,  aristocratic  appearance  and 
atmosphere.  That  a  town  of  about  twenty-five  thousand 
inhabitants  should  possess  such  museums,  palaces,  libraries, 
and  monuments,  was  evidently  made  possible  only  by  the 
concentration  of  power  and  wealth  in  the  Grand  Du  al 
hands.  In  the  Museum  I  became  acquainted  for  the  first 
time  with  the  artistic  work  of  Preller,  a  name  with  which 
we  shall  become  familiar  in  the  galleries  which  we  are  to 
explore.  His  scenes  from  the  "  Odyssey,"  which  decorate 
the  chief  room  of  the  Museum,  are  so  admirable  in  design 
and  delightful  in  color  that  one  would  enjoy  a  frequent 
vision  of  such  creations  as  make  more  real  the  most  de- 
lightful of  all  the  longer  poems  of  the  world.  The  old 
Stadtkirche  of  Weimar  was  a  revelation  and  a  surprise. 
Near  it  is  the  monument  to  Herder,  "  A  classic  among  the 
Theologians  and  a  Theologian  among  the  classics,"  and 
within  it  this  famous  preacher  —  whose  motto  was  "  Light, 
love,  life,"  and  who  said,  "  Love,  that  you  may  under- 
stand" —  offered  his  large  gospel  from  a  pulpit  in  which 
Martin  Luther  himself  had  spoken. 

The  interior  of  the  church  stirred  those  deep  and  peculiar 
feelings  which  I  frequently  have  in  England,  and  which  I 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  1 33 

rarely  experience  in  Germany.  The  sympathetic  visitor  is 
brought  through  his  historic  imagination  into  close  prox- 
imity with  the  mighty  ones  of  old,  —  "  the  dead  but  scep- 
tred sovereigns  who  rule  our  spirits  from  their  urns."  The 
most  impressive  of  all  the  pictures  of  Luther's  artist  friend 
Cranach  is  in  this  church,  —  a  crucifixion,  and  by  the  way 
of  supplement,  on  the  same  canvas,  a  resurrection.  Luther 
once  said,  "  We  have  taken  Christ  off  the  crucifix."  The 
artist,  with  no  regard  for  chronology,  wherein  he  resembles 
the  older  masters,  brings  Luther,  Melanchthon,  and  himself 
into  the  picture ;  and  the  attendant  called  our  attention, 
for  the  light  was  dim,  to  a  tiny  stream  of  blood  issuing  from 
the  Redeemer's  side,  which,  after  forming  an  arc,  like  a 
rainbow,  falls  upon  the  artist's  head.  We  were  shown  the 
very  elaborate  sculptured  monuments  to  the  princes  of 
Weimar,  the  "  box "  where  the  Grand  Duke  Carl  Augus- 
tus sat,  and  the  smaller  place  of  state  reserved  for  Goethe. 
I  asked  the  privilege  of  ascending  to  the  pulpit  where 
Luther  had  preached,  and  I  even  pronounced  a  brief  ser- 
mon in  Luther's  words  :  "  Em'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott." 
The  next  afternoon,  in  the  Stadtkirche  of  Jena,  we  saw 
another  pulpit  in  which  the  reformer  once  stood,  and  I 
must  confess  a  perhaps  juvenile  interest  in  such  memorials. 
The  Grand  Ducal  Palace  in  Weimar  was  rich  in  interest 
beyond  our  expectations,  not  only  because  of  its  various 
art  treasures,  representing  portraits  of  illustrious  personages 
and  many  drawings  from  famous  masters ;  not  only  because 
of  its  splendid  treasures  of  malachite  and  buhl  and  lapis- 
lazuli,  of  Roman  and  Florentine  mosaics,  but  also,  and 
chiefly,  from  its  intimate  associations  with  the  great  poets 
of  Germany.  Here  was  the  lovely  chapel  which  Goethe 
devised  ;  here  was  the  winter-garden,  with  the  chairs  still 
standing,  in  which  Goethe  and  Carl  Augustus  sat  during 
their  long  conferences ;  here  was  the  chess-table,  of  semi- 
precious stones,  which  Goethe  brought  back  from  his  Italian 
journey ;  here  was  the  Goethe  room,  adorned  with  scenes 
from    "  Iphigenia,"   "  Egmont,"  and  "  Faust ;  "    here  was 


134  4    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

the  Schiller  room,  with  scenes  from  Schiller's  plays ;  here 
were  the  Wieland  and  Herder  rooms  :  all  of  them  helping 
to  redeem  the  palace  from  that  air  of  merely  princely  splen- 
dor of  which  one  grows  weary  in  Europe.  These  are  great 
forms,  are  they  not,  which  haunt  the  Grand  Ducal  cham- 
bers? And  as  we  stepped  upon  the  stairway  at  the  head 
of  which  Napoleon  was  received  after  the  battle  of  Jena,  we 
felt  the  presence  of  a  still  greater  shade,  as  if  Jupiter  him- 
self had  come  down  among  the  lesser  gods. 

Weimar  abounds  in  statues,  some  of  them,  like  the 
equestrian  figure  of  Carl  Augustus,  quite  impressive,  and 
one  of  them,  which  the  Fatherland  has  erected  to  the 
glory  of  Goethe  and  Schiller,  world-famous. 

We  took  our  supper  at  the  Werther  restaurant,  opposite 
the  theatre  which  stands  on  the  ground  of  the  Hof  Theater, 
burned  down  in  1825,  wherein  operas  and  plays  from 
Mozart,  Kotzebue,  Schiller,  Shakespeare,  and  Goethe  had 
notable  representations  in  the  days  when  Weimar  was  the 
centre  of  German  culture.  In  the  theatre  which  now 
stands,  Liszt  was  Kapellmeister;  and  here,  in  1859,  under 
his  direction,  Wagner's  "  Lohengrin  "  was  for  the  first  time 
given  to  the  world.  Here,  too,  "Tannhauser,"  first  heard 
in  Dresden,  had  its  second  representation.  Liszt  is  one  of 
the  celebrities  of  Weimar,  having  lived  here  fourteen  years ; 
and  his  house  has  become  a  Liszt  museum.  The  Werther 
restaurant  is  a  thoroughly  German  place,  and  has  been  fre- 
quented by  all  the  famous  men  of  Weimar.  In  the  house, 
of  which  it  is  a  part,  there  once  dwelt  also  a  famous  woman, 
Johanna  Schopenhauer,  author  of  novels  and  romances, 
whose  cleverness  drew  to  her  the  company  of  Goethe  and 
his  great  contemporaries.  While  the  rain  was  pouring 
without,  we  breathed  the  smoky  air  and  enjoyed  the  hos- 
pitalities of  this  memory-haunted  place. 

But  the  next  day  we  came  far  closer  to  Goethe's  life  by 
visiting  his  two  homes, — the  little  summer  house  beyond 
the  park,  and  rising  above  the  meadows  on  the  banks  of 
the  Ilm,  and  his  stately  city  residence,  which  has  now  be- 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  1 35 

come  a  Goethe  National  Museum.  The  summer  house  is 
unpretentious  in  the  extreme.  It  is  kept  nearly  as  it  was 
in  the  poet's  life.  We  visited  all  the  rooms,  saw  where  he 
studied  and  where  he  slept,  and  the  bed,  that  could  be 
folded  into  small  compass,  and  which  he  took  with  him  on 
his  Italian  journey.  In  the  glade  back  of  the  house  is  his 
favorite  seat,  and  by  it  the  stone,  with  a  poetical  inscrip- 
tion to  his  friend  Frau  Stein,  which  he  himself  had  carved 
upon  it. 

The  prosperous  Goethe,  classic  in  his  own  lifetime,  was 
consciously  posing  for  posterity,  and  arranging  things  for 
the  convenience  of  those  who  were  to  visit  the  shrines  asso- 
ciated with  his  life.  The  Schiller  house,  which  we  visited, 
is  simple  enough,  but  the  Goethe  house  was  an  almost  pala- 
tial home  of  the  Muses.  The  room  in  which  he  died  and 
the  bed  on  which  he  lay  asking  for  "  more  light,"  his  study, 
and  his  books  are  preserved  nearly  as  he  left  them.  But 
the  house  has  been  turned  into  a  Goethe  museum.  It  is 
filled  also  with  the  poet's  own  treasures,  which  were  costly 
and  splendid.  Busts,  statues,  portraits,  and  sketches  of 
Goethe  abound.  Here  are  drawings  by  his  own  hand,  and 
scientific  collections  which  he  made.  He  seemed  to  have 
an  eye  and  a  mind  for  everything  rich,  curious,  and  beauti- 
ful. The  intellectual  and  aesthetic  culture  which  he  cen- 
tred in  himself  was  prodigious ;  but  the  ego  in  this  man 
was  enormously  large. 

To  me,  however,  the  central  shrine  of  Goethe  is  the 
Grand  Ducal  Library,  which  the  poet  himself  transformed 
into  its  present  shape.  A  most  intelligent  and  interested 
librarian  was  our  guide  among  the  two  hundred  thousand 
volumes  and  innumerable  busts  and  pictures.  Here  oc- 
curred rehearsals  by  the  court  gentlemen  and  ladies  of 
some  of  Goethe's  and  Schiller's  plays.  Here  are  the  books 
which  the  poet  gathered  and  consulted.  We  looked  with 
admiration  upon  Trippel's  famous  bust  of  Goethe,  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  things  in  the  world.  It  shows  the  young 
poet  at  twenty-seven,  fairer  than  a  Greek  Apollo.     But  one 


136  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

does  not  see  any  heavenly  fire  latent  in  the  young  soul. 
The  light  that  streamed  over  the  marbles  and  academic 
groves  of  Athens  is  there,  but  no  flame  from  Pentecost. 
The  world's  intellectual  indebtedness  to  Goethe  is  great  and 
growing.  He  was  not  lacking  in  fine  traits  of  character. 
But  his  "  ideals  were  Hellenic,  not  Hebrew,"  and  he  found 
a  thousand  pages  written  by  both  ancient  and  modern  men, 
graciously  endowed  of  God,  "  quite  as  beautiful  and  useful 
and  necessary  to  mankind  "  as  the  Gospels.  He  says  of 
himself  that  he  tried  life  under  all  of  its  varied  aspects  : 
the  pleasures  of  sense,  of  pride,  of  intellectual  power,  of 
aesthetic  culture,  he  knew  to  the  full,  and  he  discovered 
their  hollowness.  The  Sahara  Desert  is  the  image  to  which 
an  American  critic  likens  Goethe's  continental  selfishness. 
From  his  working-room  in  the  Grand  Ducal  Library  he 
could  look  upon  the  windows  behind  which  lived  three 
of  the  women  who  most  deeply  admired  him.  One  can- 
not visit  the  Goethe  house  and  museum  in  Weimar  without 
realizing  that  the  poet  was  determined  to  possess  everything 
that  might  give  any  joy  or  satisfaction  in  life.  "  A  great 
man  in  a  silk  coat,"  Heine  calls  him.  The  moral  results  of 
his  many  years  of  refined  selfishness  seem  to  me  indicated 
by  another  famous  bust  of  Goethe  exhibited  in  the  Library. 
It  represents  him  in  extreme  old  age.  The  Apollo  has  dis- 
appeared, but  Jupiter  is  there,  and,  alas  !  Mephistopheles 
also. 

On  a  table  in  this  library  were  placed  the  bones  of 
Schiller,  and  here  Goethe  arranged  them  for  their  new  se- 
pulture in  the  Grand  Ducal  vault.  Here  are  some  of  the 
most  famous  maps  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Here  is  the 
monk's  gown  in  which  Luther  stood  before  the  Emperor  at 
the  Diet  of  Worms.  Here  is  the  leather  doublet  which 
Gustavus  Adolphus  wore  at  the  fatal  battle  of  Liitzen,  and, 
putting  his  finger  into  the  bullet-hole,  the  young  gentleman 
of  our  party  naturally  felt  that  he  was  very  close  to  history. 
And  here  we  saw  a  bust  of  Napoleon,  made  while  he  was  in 
Weimar,  which  greatly  pleased  the  Emperor,  because  the 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  I  37 

German   sculptor    had    not  nattered    him,  as  the    French 
artists  always   did. 

And  I  have  come  to  feel  that  with  all  the  sincere  devo- 
tion which  the  German  people  give  to  Martin  Luther,  a 
large  portion  of  the  population  have  more  sympathy  with  the 
intellectual  temper,  the  many-sided  culture,  and  —  shall  I 
add,  the  non-spiritual  life  —  of  Goethe,  greatest  of  German 
poets.  In  Weimar  and  out  of  it  we  confront,  on  canvas  and 
in  marble  and  bronze,  the  imposing  face  and  figure  of  this 
marvellous  man.  The  German  classics  are  few  in  number 
and  German  literature  of  the  higher  order  is  soon  exhausted. 
Those  who  know  Klopstock,  Lessing,  Goethe,  Schiller, 
Herder,  Wieland,  Heine,  Richter,  Korner,  Uhland,  and  a 
few  besides,  need  not  look  further.  The  classics  cover  a 
limited  time,  and,  compared  with  the  indescribable  wealth 
of  English  literature,  the  great  German  literature  is  meagre 
indeed.  But  no  English  poet  was  ever  honored  like  Goethe. 
In  his  lifetime  and  since  his  death,  the  regard  for  him  has 
been  worship,  confined  to  no  one  class  of  his  countrymen. 
How  little  honor  was  given  to  Shakespeare  in  his  lifetime  ! 
And  how  few  and  paltry  are  the  outward  memorials  with 
which  England  honors  glorious  John  Milton  !  Emerson, 
Lowell,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Agassiz,  Sumner,  Whittier, 
Motley  —  the  octet  who  gave  lustre,  during  the  last  gener- 
ation, to  Boston  and  its  neighborhood  —  I  think  are  likely 
to  fare  better  at  the  hands  of  a  grateful  republic.  But  if  I 
should  continue  much  longer  this  account  of  the  treasures 
we  discovered  in  Weimar,  I  should  have  no  space  for  what 
we  have  seen  since.  Reluctantly  we  left  the  city,  which 
Goethe  described  as  "  like  Bethlehem  in  Judah,  small  and 
great." 

We  spent  five  hours  in  Jena,  and  found  the  old  university 
town,  with  its  students  all  gone,  as  quiet  as  death.  There  is 
not  much  to  draw  one  to  Jena  except  a  desire  to  become 
familiar  with  the  external  features  of  a  famous  seat  of  learn- 
ing. Schiller  once  held  a  professorship  in  the  gray  and 
venerable    university,    and    we    saw    the    Schloss    where 


138  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Goethe  wrote  his  "  Hermann  and  Dorothea."  We  walked 
through  the  library ;  we  saw  the  statue  of  John  Frederick  the 
Generous,  who  founded  the  university ;  we  walked  on  the 
Philosophers'  Way,  and  thought  of  Fichte,  Schelling,  and 
Hegel,  who  have  given  Jena  a  great  name  in  the  history  of 
speculation,  and  we  looked  upon  the  monument  to  the  nat- 
uralist Oken,  who  was  one  of  the  teachers  of  Agassiz ;  we 
admired  the  beautiful  unwooded  hills  that  surround  the 
little  city,  and,  on  leaving  it  to  come  hither,  we  passed  not 
far  from  the  battlefield  where  Napoleon  brought  such 
humiliation  upon  the  Prussians. 

Leipsic  we  found  interesting  enough  to  hold  us  a  full  day. 
Its  university  stands  next  to  Berlin,  and  the  new  university 
building,  with  its  columns  and  rich  sculptures,  is  second 
only  to  the  new  Sorbonne  in  Paris.  The  Supreme  Law  Courts 
of  the  German  Empire  are  here,  housed  in  one  of  the  grand- 
est secular  buildings  of  Germany.  When  I  think  also  of  the 
new  Gewandhaus,  or  Drapers'  Hall,  containing  the  libraries 
of  both  the  university  and  the  city,  of  the  Conservatory  and 
the  Museum,  I  am  compelled  to  regard  Leipsic  as  archi- 
tecturally second  to  scarcely  any  city  of  the  Fatherland.  It 
is  famous  also  for  its  annual  fairs,  to  which  buyers  and  sellers 
come  from  the  Orient,  and  for  its  printing-offices  and  book- 
sellers' shops,  which  make  it  a  centre  of  the  book-trade 
almost  equal  to  Chicago,  although  its  population  is  not  more 
than  one-eighth  of  that  city's  inhabitants. 

Leipsic,  the  birthplace  of  Wagner,  is  celebrated,  likewise 
for  its  music.  We  have  had  a  happy  hour  or  two  in  the 
Rosenthal,  the  city's  beautiful  park,  where  in  the  zoological 
garden  we  photographed  the  zebras  and  saw  the  per- 
formances of  a  fine  group  of  Samoans,  perhaps  the  same 
whom  we  met  in  the  Midway  Plaisance.  On  the  tower  of 
the  Pleissenburg  we  have  seen  where  raged  in  18 13  the 
bloody  Battle  of  the  Nations,  so  disastrous  to  Napoleon. 
And  from  the  same  point  of  view  we  have  caught  a  glimpse 
of  Liitzen,  where  Gustavus  died.  In  the  city  we  have 
visited  the  monument  commemorating  the  premature  ex- 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  1 39 

plosion  by  which  the  bridge  across  the  river  was  blown  up 
and  so  many  French  soldiers  were  destroyed.  We  have 
also  seen  the  house  where  Schiller  lived  and  wrote  his 
"  Hymn  to  Joy."  We  have  heard  a  Russian  orchestra  at  a 
restaurant,  and  in  the  picture-gallery  have  feasted  our  eyes 
on  the  superb  landscapes  of  Calame,  and  have  seen  Napo- 
leon at  Fontainebleau,  as  portrayed  by  Paul  Delaroche. 

But  our  hearts  were  turning  toward  Dresden.  We 
arrived  at  the  Saxon  capital  by  a  fast  train  from  Leipsic, 
one  dark  and  rainy  evening,  and,  with  a  strong  porter 
carrying  our  luggage  on  his  shoulders,  we  entered  our 
pension,  in  the  Liittechaustrasse,  a  street  given  up  to 
pensions,  in  the  English  and  American  quarter,  and  not  far 
from  the  new  station. 

This  was  my  first  experience  in  a  large  city  of  that  pecu- 
liar European  institution  which  in  America  is  called  a 
boarding-house.  As  a  substitute  for  a  hotel,  this  pension 
was  by  no  means  a  failure.  For  comfortable  rooms,  fair 
service,  the  usual  light  breakfast  and  good  dinners  and 
suppers,  we  paid  daily  four  marks  apiece.  And  then  the 
company  at  the  dinner-table  was  worth  all  we  paid.  Two 
brothers  and  two  sisters,  talkers  in  many  languages,  had 
charge  of  us  in  the  absence  of  their  mother.  That  gentle- 
man at  the  end  of  the  table  is  a  German  who  has  lived 
many  years  in  Chile.  His  Spanish  wife  and  their  children 
sit  next  to  him.  Nearly  opposite  me  is  an  ancient  maiden 
lady  from  England,  who  talks  a  dialect  which  my  son  does 
not  understand.  Opposite  her  is  an  Englishman  who 
receives  a  great  deal  of  effusive  attention  from  two  Ameri- 
can young  women.  Toward  the  end  of  the  table  is  a  large, 
good-natured  opera-singer,  himself  a  Dane.  His  very 
handsome  Austrian  wife  sits  next  him.  Their  beautiful 
baby  is  in  charge  of  an  Italian  nurse.  With  some  reason 
our  pension  is  called  "  International." 

Sight-seeing  of  the  tremendously  earnest  and  serious 
kind  which  we  carry  on,  demands  more  food  than  is  fur- 
nished by  three  meals  a  day.     After  two  hours  in  a  picture 


140  A    IVOKLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

gallery  or  museum  the  quartet  always  clamored  for  a  cafe, 
and  Dresden  abounds  in  such  benevolent  institutions.  The 
chocolate  and  the  "  Kuchen "  which  can  be  obtained  at 
several  places  near  the  old  market,  or  at  Pollender's  beyond 
the  old  bridge,  are  a  good  supplement  to  the  joy  of  seeing 
the  "  Sistine  Madonna."  The  variety  of  pleasures  which 
can  be  crowded  into  a  day  in  Dresden  is  surprising. 

The  pictures  which  one  can  see  and  the  music  which  one 
can  hear  combine  to  give  the  capital  of  Saxony  a  potent  and 
enduring  charm.  Great  improvements  have  occurred  since 
my  last  visit  here.  The  fine  residence  portion  has  been 
considerably  enlarged.  The  shops  which  we  used  to  haunt 
about  the  old  market  show  a  new  splendor  along  the  Pra- 
gerstrasse.  English  signs  are  distressingly  numerous,  and 
evidences  of  American  and  English  occupation  are  nearly 
everywhere  apparent.  The  tramway  system  in  Dresden  is 
an  immense  convenience,  after  you  learn  that  the  cars  stop 
only  at  the  "  Halte-Stellen,"  which  are  signs  by  the  street, 
placed  rather  far  apart  and  marked  by  those  words.  And  then 
what  fun  and  physical  recreation  for  weary  sight-seers  are 
long  rides  on  the  spacious  tops  of  these  comfortable  street 
cars  ! 

Four  of  our  evenings  in  Dresden  were  given  up  to  music. 
There  were  the  two  concerts  at  the  Belvedere  on  the  Bruhl 
Terrace  by  the  river,  and  there  were  "  Mignon  "  and 
"  Tannhauser  "  at  the  Royal  Opera  House.  Our  visits  to 
the  Wartburg  and  to  Weimar  were  a  real  preparation  for  the 
keen  enjoyment  of  these  finely  rendered  operas.  The 
present  King  of  Saxony,  the  richest  ruler  in  Germany,  out- 
ranking the  emperor  himself  in  personal  possessions,  con- 
tributes five  hundred  thousand  marks  annually  out  of  his 
private  purse  to  maintain  the  high  character  and  repute  of 
the  Dresden  opera. 

From  before  the  days  of  Augustus  the  Strong  Saxon  kings 
have  been  famous  collectors,  and  their  success  in  bringing 
together  the  rarest  and  finest  results  of  artistic  workmanship 
is  the  wonder  of  all  who  examine  the  treasures  of  the  royal 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  141 

green  vault,  of  the  Historical  Museum,  the  collection  of 
porcelain,  and  the  almost  unequalled  picture-gallery.  The 
pictures,  however,  now  belong  to  the  city  of  Dresden, 
excepting  the  "  Sistine  Madonna,"  the  most  precious  and 
celebrated  of  them  all,  which  is  the  king's  private  property. 
England's  display  of  armor,  weapons,  and  crown  jewels  in 
the  Tower  of  London  appears  rather  cheap  and  small 
after  one  has  spent  a  few  mornings  in  the  King  of  Saxony's 
museums.  There  is  no  other  collection  of  porcelain  to  be 
mentioned  beside  that  which  forms  a  part  of  the  Museum 
Johanneum.  And  who  will  ever  forget  his  dazzled  bewilder- 
ment amid  the  treasures  of  the  Green  Vaults,  —  treasures  of 
bronze,  buhl,  and  ivory,  enamels,  mosaics,  corals,  mother- 
of-pearl,  gold,  silver,  and  crystal,  agate,  jasper,  and  onyx, 
cameos,  chalcedony  and  lapis  lazuli,  carved  woods,  serpen- 
tine and  jade,  with  a  display  of  jewels,  diamonds,  pearls, 
rubies,  sapphires,  and  emeralds,  reminding  one  of  Milton's 
picture  of  Satan's  throne  outshining  — 

"  The  wealth  of  Ormus  or  of  Ind, 
Or  where  the  gorgeous  east  with  richest  hand 
Showers  on  her  kings  barbaric  pearl  and  gold." 

Saxony  is  a  Protestant  kingdom,  but  from  the  day  when 
Augustus  the  Strong  became  ruler  of  the  Catholic  kingdom 
of  Poland  the  Saxon  monarchs  have  been  Roman  Catholics. 
The  connection  with  Poland  has  brought  to  these  museums 
many  Polish  jewels  and  other  treasures,  some  of  them  of 
historic  interest,  like  John  Sobieski's  coat  of  mail  and  the 
tent  of  the  grand  vizier  Mustapha,  captured  at  the  siege 
of  Vienna.  Sir  Walter  Scott  gathered  into  Abbotsford  a 
marvellous  number  of  historical  curios.  But  the  King  of 
Saxony  shows  you,  and  you  can  hardly  overestimate  the 
interest  of  imaginative  young  people  in  seeing  them,  such 
treasures  as  Napoleon's  gift  of  splendid  Sevres  pottery  to 
the  Saxon  ruler ;  the  swords  of  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia 
and  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden ;  jewels  belonging  to  many 
emperors,  electors,  and  archbishops  ;  sapphires  given  by  the 
Russian  czar ;  rings  once  worn  by  Dr.  Martin  Luther  \  suits 


142  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

of  armor  used  by  earlier  Saxon  princes  or  by  King  Gusta- 
vus  Adolphus ;  and  costumes,  some  of  them  belonging  to 
Napoleon. 

But  I  suppose  that  for  every  visitor  to  the  royal  museums 
to  which  I  have  referred  a  hundred  enter  the  picture 
gallery,  housed  in  one  part  of  the  Zwinger,  the  six  pavilions 
of  which  contain  an  immense  variety  of  scientific  and 
other  collections.  The  Louvre  in  Paris  is  much  larger, 
and  is,  of  course,  far  richer  in  the  masterpieces  of  French 
art.  The  galleries  of  Florence  occupy  no  second  place 
among  the  treasuries  of  beauty.  But  Dresden  is  in  one 
respect  supreme.  It  holds  Raphael's  "  Sistine  Madonna," 
whose  tender  and  magnificent  loveliness  has  won  many 
millions  of  hearts.  Is  there  any  other  little  room  in 
Europe  which  has  drawn  to  it  the  feet  of  so  many  of  the 
great  and  wise  and  famous  of  the  earth  as  that  room  which 
is  sacred  to  Raphael's  most  famous  picture?  Men  usually 
wear  their  hats  before  the  other  works  in  the  immense 
gallery,  but  they  nearly  always  remove  them  when  they 
enter  the  sanctuary  set  apart  to  the  Mother  and  Child.  I 
think  the  prodigious  expectations  with  which  people  come 
to  this  picture  usually  are  more  than  realized,  and  this  is 
all  the  more  remarkable  because  everybody  is  perfectly 
familiar  with  Raphael's  masterpiece  through  photographs, 
engravings,  and  attempted  copies.  But  even  the  best 
copies  fail  to  catch  the  surpassing  loveliness  of  color, 
which  is  one  of  the  chief  surprises  of  the  picture. 

I  come  back  to  the  Dresden  gallery  after  a  long  absence, 
and  am  glad  to  find  that  my  appreciative  enthusiasm  for 
its  chief  works  has  been  greatly  augmented.  It  would  be  a 
sad  experience  were  it  otherwise.  What  is  best  in  art, 
nature,  literature,  should  not  only  preserve  for  us  an 
eternal  youth,  but  should  help  to  keep  in  us  an  immortal 
freshness  of  appreciation  and  a  deepening  insight  into  the 
world  of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good.  If  I  were 
giving  counsel  to  any  who  are  planning  a  visit  to  this 
gallery,  or  even  dreaming   of  it,  I  would  say :  Learn   all 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  1 43 

you  can  before  coming  here,  expect  much,  and  then  be 
happy  in  having  your  expectations  surpassed.  In  pictures^ 
as  in  music  and  poetry,  do  not  limit  your  admiration  to 
one  master.  Enter  sympathetically  into  the  spiritual  ideal- 
ism of  Raphael  and  also  into  the  intellectual  and  imagina- 
tive realism  of  Rembrandt.  The  great  Dutch  magician's 
"  Jewish  Rabbi,"  the  "  Breakfast  Scene,"  the  "  Saskia," 
the  "Eagle  and  Ganymede,"  the  "Portrait  of  an  Old 
Man,"  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  this  gallery,  lost  for  me 
none  of  their  peculiar  attraction,  even  after  the  "  Sistine 
Madonna"  and  Correggio's  "Holy  Night."  We  found 
it  a  rest  to  the  mind  to  leave  the  rooms,  rich  with  the 
great  canvases  of  Raphael,  Rubens,  and  Correggio,  Paul 
Veronese  and  Palma  Vecchio,  to  enter  the  smaller  rooms 
with  the  smaller  canvases,  among  which  Titian's  "  Tribute- 
Money  "  is  probably  pre-eminent.  But  these  cabinets  are 
almost  equally  notable  for  the  wealth  of  Netherlandish 
painting,  for  the  pictures  of  Wouverman  and  Ruysdael, 
Van  Eyck  and  Teniers,  Ostade  and  Terburg.  In  German 
art  Holbein's  "  Madonna  "  and  Diirer's  "  Crucifixion," 
marvellous  though  tiny,  hold  the  supreme  place. 

The  classics  of  other  centuries  weary  the  spectator 
sooner  than  modern  pictures.  It  is  often  with  consider- 
able effort,  like  that  required  in  reading  old  English  or 
translating  from  a  foreign  language,  that  one  enters  into 
acquaintance  and  sympathy  with  their  meaning.  There- 
fore, if  I  may  add  one  more  word  of  counsel,  I  should 
advise  my  readers  visiting  the  Dresden  gallery  to  escape 
now  and  then  to  the  upper  floor,  where  they  may  see 
Gerard's  "  Napoleon  in  his  Coronation  Robes,"  some 
good  specimens  of  Defregger,  and  Andreas  and  Oswald 
Achenbach,  and  where,  best  of  all,  they  may  linger  before 
Professor  Hofmann's  "  Christ  in  the  Temple."  After  the 
"  Sistine  Madonna  "  this  appears  to  be  the  most  popular 
picture  in  Dresden.  Through  photographs  it  has  become 
familiar  to  almost  everybody.  To  some  of  us  it  is  a 
sacred  picture,  indeed,  and  the  figure  of  the  young  Jesus, 


144  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

with  the  radiant  beauty  of  His  face,  is  like  a  vision  out  of 
heaven.  We  had  the  pleasure  of  calling  upon  Professor 
Hofmann  in  his  studio  in  the  Bismarck-strasse,  and  there 
we  saw  the  original  of  "  Christ  and  the  Rich  Young  Ruler," 
so  well  known  to  Americans.  No  other  modern  has 
given  the  Christians  of  to-day  such  satisfactory  represen- 
tations of  Christ.  His  "Jesus  Blessing  Little  Children" 
is  becoming  a  favorite  picture  upon  church  windows. 
Professor  Hofmann  is  a  gracious  and  sweet-hearted  old 
gentleman,  whose  soul  seems  to  have  been  made  beautiful 
by  his  beautiful  thoughts  of  the  Man  Divine.  And  who 
else  among  modern  painters  has  put  upon  the  canvas  such 
fascinating  colors  ?  The  delight  of  the  eye  in  color  which 
I  had  in  seeing  his  "  Christ  in  the  Temple  "  and  "  Christ 
and  the  Rich  Young  Ruler  "  suggested  to  me  the  similar 
pleasure  which  one  feels  before  the  "  Sistine  Madonna." 
Professor  Hofmann  is  very  happy  that  Americans  are  so 
fond  of  his  work ;  but  he  hardly  expects  that  "  Christ  and 
the  Rich  Young  Ruler  "  will  be  bought  by  any  of  our 
American  millionaires.  I  told  him,  however,  that  there 
were  many  thoroughly  Christian  men  among  them,  who 
were  using  their  riches  for  others  and  who  would  not  be 
troubled  by  the  prophet's  testing  words  issuing  from  this 
canvas :  "  Sell  whatsoever  thou  hast  and  give  to  the 
poor." 

Nearly  every  one  who  goes  to  Dresden  is  eager  to  make 
a  little  trip  to  the  old  town  of  Meissen,  where  the  royal 
porcelain  is  manufactured.  The  quartet  spent  an  after- 
noon of  great  interest  in  visiting  not  only  the  manufactory, 
one  of  the  many  properties  of  the  Saxon  king,  but  also  the 
imposing  castle  of  the  old  margraves,  nobly  situated  and 
nobly  built,  giving  wide  views  of  the  valley  of  the  Elbe. 
For  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  thrifty  Saxon  kings 
utilized  this  extensive  building  for  the  manufacture  of  Dres- 
den porcelain.  But  the  present  king  has  had  the  old 
Schloss  thoroughly  restored  and  superbly  decorated  with 
frescos  which  illustrate  its  great  history  from  the  days  of  the 


IN  CLASSIC   GERMANY.  1 45 

Emperor  Henry  I.  down  to  the  time  when  the  chemist 
Boettger,  the  inventor  of  the  famous  porcelain,  was  impris- 
oned here  and  compelled  by  Augustus  the  Strong  to  give 
up  his  secret. 

The  castle  is  far  more  imposing  than  even  the  Wartburg, 
and  we  were  delighted  to  wander  through  its  banqueting- 
halls,  its  chapel,  the  women's  apartments,  and  the  judgment 
hall,  where  the  artistic  and  historical  interests  are  con- 
stantly blended.  Judging  from  the  painted  wooden  fig- 
ures which  stand  in  the  large  banqueting-hall,  by  which 
modern  art  has  endeavored  to  reproduce  the  Saxon  princes, 
they  were  masterful  men,  "  with  Atlantean  shoulders  fit  to 
bear  the  weight  of  mightiest  monarchies."  But  what  fear- 
ful graspers  and  absorbers  these  old  and  modern  rulers 
have  shown  themselves  to  be  ! 

On  the  same  high  platform  with  the  castle  is  the  fine 
cathedral,  containing  splendid  monuments  and  the  dust  of 
many  a  warlike  prince.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  stir  and 
excitement  among  the  attendants  in  the  Schloss,  as  the 
King  of  Saxony  was  expected  within  a  few  weeks  to  enter- 
tain the  young  Kaiser  during  a  three  hours'  visit  within  its 
historic  walls.  But  the  peculiar  interest  of  Meissen  centres 
in  the  porcelain  factory,  where  such  artistic  work  is  done. 
We  saw  all  the  processes,  from  the  kneading  of  the  white 
clay  to  the  burnishing  of  the  gold  on  the  finished  work. 
Those  among  the  seven  hundred  and  fifty  workmen  whose 
labors  we  watched  appeared  to  be  skilful,  certain,  and 
strong  in  their  various  manipulations.  It  gave  us  a  renewed 
interest  in  the  Dresden  ware  to  be  assured  by  ocular 
demonstration  that  every  plate  and  cup  is  the  product  of 
many  educated  hands.  It  was  interesting  to  see  the  famil- 
iar "  onion  pattern,"  from  which  we  have  eaten  for  years, 
and  which  I  saw  last  summer  in  Professor  Max  Muller's 
home  in  Oxford,  here  being  fashioned  and  decorated,  not 
only  in  blue,  but  also  in  red  and  gilt.  Several  burnings, 
varying   in  number,   are   required  in  the  manufacture,  and 

we  were  surprised  to  see  what  a  tremendous  shrinkage  these 

10 


146  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

fiery  trials  and  hardenings  made  in  the  original  size  of  the 
plates.  The  young  people  were  reluctant  to  leave  the  fac- 
tory, even  though  they  knew  that  on  their  return  to  Dresden 
they  were  to  go  immediately  to  the  opera. 

After  leaving  Dresden  we  were  tempted  to  break  our 
journey  across  the  great  Saxon  plains  by  a  few  hours'  halt 
in  Wittenberg.  I  never  realized  before  what  a  wealth  of 
memorials,  visible  to  the  eye,  Martin  Luther  has  bequeathed 
to  his  country,  as  I  have  on  this  little  journey  in  classic 
Germany.  And  Wittenberg,  his  own  dear  city,  whose  people 
he  loved  and  who  stood  by  him  during  the  stormiest  years  of 
his  great  life,  seemed  to  us  like  one  immense  Luther  museum. 
We  photographed  the  oak  which  marks  the  place  where  he 
burned  the  papal  bull.  In  the  Stadtkirche,  where  the  ele- 
ments of  the  communion  were  first  administered  in  both 
kinds  to  the  laity,  we  stood  where  Luther's  voice  had  so 
often  roused,  enlightened,  and  comforted  the  people.  In 
the  Market  Place  we  saw  the  well-known  statue,  bearing  the 
more  famous  inscription :  "  If  it  be  God's  work,  it  will 
endure  ;  if  man's  work,  it  will  perish."  In  the  Schlosskirche 
we  walked  through  the  sacred  archway  on  whose  wooden 
portals  Luther  nailed  his  ninety-five  theses  against  the 
errors  of  the  Roman  church,  and  looked  with  more  than 
a  curious  interest  upon  the  bronze  doors,  which  have  taken 
their  place,  inscribed  with  the  original  Latin  text  of  Luther's 
propositions.  In  the  arch  of  the  portal  is  a  modern  pic- 
ture of  the  Crucifixion,  with  Luther  and  Melanchthon  kneel- 
ing before  the  Christ.  Over  the  doors  the  statues  of  the 
Electors  Frederick  and  John  appear  still  to  guard  the  Re- 
formed Doctrine.  Within  the  church  we  stood  by  the 
graves  of  the  hero  and  of  the  scholar  of  the  Reformation, 
and  saw  in  the  windows  the  escutcheons  of  the  brave  Ger- 
man cities  that  championed  the  cause  of  the  gospel.  In 
the  remodelled  and  splendid  interior  are  statues  of  the 
reformers  before  the  Reformation,  Savonarola's  among 
them,  giving  one  a  new  impression  of  Luther's  personal 
and  historic  greatness. 


IN  CLASSIC  GERMANY.  1 47 

But  Luther's  house,  contained  in  the  old  Augustinian 
monastery,  which  likewise  was  the  university  building 
where  he  lectured  from  the  chair  of  Philosophy,  brought 
us  to  the  inmost  sanctuary  of  his  public  and  domestic  life. 
We  sat  in  the  window-chairs  once  occupied  by  him  and  the 
beloved  Catherine.  In  this  room  are  his  table  where  he 
wrote,  and  the  enormous  German  stove  decorated  with 
tiles  and  bas-reliefs  of  the  Evangelists,  designed  by  Luther 
himself.  The  apartments  are  spacious  and  numerous. 
One  of  them  is  adorned  with  paintings  representing  great 
scenes  in  Luther's  life,  together  with  a  striking  picture  of 
Charles  the  Fifth  and  the  Duke  of  Alva  at  Luther's  grave. 
The  literary  treasures  include  autographs,  historical  docu- 
ments, the  first  editions  of  Luther's  works,  old  translations 
of  the  Bible,  and  Luther's  library  of  ponderous  books.  One 
of  Luther's  pulpits  is  exhibited  here,  and  in  the  Lecture 
Room  I  had  the  pleasure  of  standing  in  the  ancient  cathe- 
dra, adorned  with  the  arms  of  the  Wittenberg  faculties, 
from  which  the  great  preacher  expounded  the  divine 
philosophy. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Germany's  capital. 

/^UR  seven  days  in  the  Kaiser's  splendid  city  gave  us  in 
^S  many  respects  the  crowning  interest  of  our  trip. 
Berlin  has  greatly  improved  since  1S86,  when  I  last  saw  it. 
The  population  to-day  is  about  that  of  Chicago,  and  a  com- 
parison between  the  German  city  on  the  Spree  and  the 
queen  of  the  American  lakes  would  be  interesting,  if  not 
altogether  flattering  to  our  pride.  In  1833,  when  the  town 
of  Chicago  was  organized,  Berlin  had  a  population  of  about 
three  hundred  thousand,  with  an  uneventful  history  of  six 
centuries  stretching  behind  it.  It  was  the  capital  of  the 
strong  military  kingdom  of  Prussia,  the  nucleus  of  the 
coming  German  Empire.  As  an  achievement  of  the  energy, 
pluck  and  enterprise  which  belong  to  American  character 
and  seem  natural  to  American  institutions,  Chicago  is  a 
much  more  wonderful  product  than  Berlin.  The  German 
city  has  been  fostered  into  strength  by  the  pride  and  power 
of  the  Prussian  kings  and  the  rulers  of  the  new  German 
Empire.  Its  virtues  and  achievements  are  such  as  naturally 
spring  from  a  wisely  administered,  centralized  government. 
The  cleanness  of  its  streets,  the  perfect  municipal  order, 
the  universal  obedience  to  law,  and  the  absence  of  all  slums 
and  evidences  of  degrading  poverty  are  most  admirable. 
The  Berlin  police,  appointed  and  controlled  by  the  royal 
government,  is  military  in  its  character,  and  is  made  up 
largely  of  soldiers  who  were  non-commissioned  officers. 
They  are  not  dependent  on  ward  bosses  for  their  positions, 
and  they  appear  to  have  no  other  business  than  to  see  that 
the  laws  and  municipal  regulations  are  enforced.     Republi- 


GERMANY'S   CAPITAL.  1 49 

can  institutions  are  superior  to  the  monarchical,  and  some- 
times indicate  a  higher  stage  of  civilization ;  still,  for  the 
government  of  great  cities  kingly  rule  in  the  hands  of  wise 
administrators  has  some  very  positive,  if  only  temporary, 
advantages. 

One  striking  feature  of  German  life  is  the  omnipresence 
of  the  soldier.  The  barracks  stand  everywhere,  in  proxim- 
ity to  gymnasium,  church,  palace,  university.  The  German 
army  is  the  people's  pride  and  the  whole  world's  admira- 
tion. The  Empire,  with  Russia  on  the  one  hand  and 
France  on  the  other,  is  possible  only  on  the  basis  of  the 
present  strong  militarism.  I  write  on  Sedan  Day,  when 
bells  have  been  ringing  in  the  church  towers  in  harmony 
with  the  people's  proud  and  joyous  memories.  At  a  great 
price  Germany  has  achieved  her  unity,  and  at  a  great  price 
she  maintains  her  glory.  In  spite  of  the  discontent  repre- 
sented by  the  growing  power  of  socialism,  the  people  gen- 
erally acquiesce  in  the  present  imperialism.  Multitudes 
applaud  it  as  the  safest  and  most  beneficent  form  of  gov- 
ernment. When  the  other  day  we  saw  the  young  Kaiser 
in  his  military  uniform,  driven  down  the  Unter  den  Linden, 
he  was  warmly  received,  more  warmly  than  he  was  wont  to 
be  a  few  years  ago.  The  national  idea  is  here  joined  to 
the  imperial,  and  has  taken  possession  of  the  people's 
minds. 

Of  course  the  task  of  creating  and  governing  such  a  city 
as  Chicago,  where  everything  had  to  be  built  from  the 
foundations,  has  been  something  prodigious.  It  has  no 
homogeneity  of  population  like  Berlin,  but  is  only  a  half- 
Americanized  mixture  of  twenty  nationalities.  It  cannot 
achieve  Berlin's  success  in  municipal  government  in  even  a 
decade  of  civic  federation  enthusiasm  and  activity.  But  if 
it  approximates  it,  there  must  be  a  wide  education  of  the 
people,  the  teaching  of  municipal  patriotism  in  the  schools, 
a  biennial  regeneration  of  the  common  council,  strict  non- 
partisanship  in  city  politics,  invincible  opposition  to  grasp- 
ing corporations,  and  the  consecration  of  the  lives  of  many 


150  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

of  our  more  prosperous,  educated,  and  leisurely  people  to 
the  work  of  city  reform. 

The  contrast  between  the  forces  which  have  made  the 
two  cities  becomes  evident  by  comparison  of  their  universi- 
ties. In  Berlin  the  university,  now  the  greatest  in  Ger- 
many, was  a  royal  foundation  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century.  It  is  fostered  by  the  central  government,  and  is  as 
much  a  part  of  the  national  administration  as  the  army  or 
the  law  courts.  In  Chicago  the  university  sprang  from  the 
gifts  of  American  citizens.  Zeal  for  Christian  education, 
enthusiasm  for  advancing  knowledge  and  municipal  pride 
and  hope  are  some  of  the  potent  forces  behind  it. 

On  the  continent  of  Europe  almost  everything  seems  to 
depend  on  government  initiative,  in  which  respect  Germany 
resembles  China.  But  the  American  people  are  literally 
uncrowned  kings.  From  their  creative  minds  and  their 
strong,  brave,  generous  hearts  our  best  achievements  imme- 
diately spring.  I  must  say  that  in  the  matter  of  buildings 
our  young  university  makes  a  better  showing  than  the  older 
and  more  famous  institution.  One  feels  something  of  awe, 
however,  as  he  stands  on  the  Unter  den  Linden  by  the 
marble  statues  of  William  and  Alexander  von  Humboldt 
and  looks  at  the  rather  plain  and  sombre  walls  of  the  Ger- 
man institution.  The  great  names  associated  with  the  past 
and  present  of  the  Berlin  University  are  among  the  chief  in 
the  annals  of  learning.  The  Humboldts,  Hegel,  Schleier- 
macher,  Neander,  Mommsen,  Ranke,  Curtius,  Virchow, 
Helmholtz,  Harnack,  Pfleiderer,  —  these  are  among  the 
giants  of  the  century. 

When  I  speak  of  Berlin  as  a  "  splendid  capital,"  I  do  not 
mean  to  rank  it  with  Paris,  although  large  sections  of  it  are 
quite  as  well  built  and  as  fine  as  that  city  by  the  Seine, 
which  everybody  may  visit  —  excepting  the  German  Kaiser  ! 
Nor  do  I  wish  to  claim  that  Berlin  has  streets  and  business 
houses  equal  to  the  best  that  can  be  seen  in  New  York  and 
Chicago.  But  the  Leipzigerstrasse,  the  Wilhelmstrasse 
and  others  are  noble  streets,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 


GERMANY'S  CAPITAL.  15  I 

the  Unter  den  Linden,  which,  however,  is  always  a  disap- 
pointment on  account  of  the  comparative  insignificance  of 
the  linden-trees.  Berlin  makes  a  brave  appearance,  with  its 
many  impressive  monuments,  its  numerous  palaces,  its 
really  fine  museums,  its  brilliant  arcades,  its  new  and  im- 
posing Parliament  House,  —  the  architecture  of  which, 
however,  the  Emperor  strongly  disapproves,  —  and  its  mag- 
nificent park,  very  accessible,  adorned  with  many  statues 
and  enlivened  with  wild  animals  and  plenty  of  good  music. 
The  means  of  transportation  are  unusually  satisfactory, 
and  I  used  there  for  the  first  time  the  "  taxometer," 
a  four-wheeled  cab  where  a  clockwork  arrangement  is  set 
in  motion  when  you  begin  your  drive  and  you  see  on  its 
face  precisely  the  amount  which  you  must  pay  at  any 
moment.  It  is  set  for  one,  two,  three,  or  more  than  three 
persons,  the  index  finger,  of  course,  moving  faster  with  the 
larger  number.  It  always  begins  with  fifty  pfennigs ;  and 
four  of  us  riding  one  morning  from  near  the  new  Parliament 
House,  in  the  Thiergarten,  through  the  Brandenburger  Thor 
down  the  whole  length  of  Unter  den  Linden,  the  distance 
of  a  mile,  to  the  Old  Museum,  we  saw  the  index  finger 
creep  up  to  only  ninety  pfennigs,  or  twenty-two  cents. 
Cheap  cabs,  over  which  there  can  be  no  quarrelling,  are 
among  the  traveller's  greatest  boons. 

This  is,  of  all  lands,  the  land  of  music  and  of  out-door 
eating  and  drinking.  An  American  student  of  Political 
Economy  escorted  me  one  afternoon  to  the  Hasenheide,  to 
get  a  glimpse  of  the  poorer  populations  of  the  city  in  the 
region  where  they  take  their  cheap  enjoyments.  Here 
was  exhibited  one  of  the  principal  facts  in  the  social  econ- 
omy of  Germany.  One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Ber- 
liners,  on  many  Sunday  afternoons,  resort  to  these  groves 
and  meadows,  where  scores  of  bands  of  various  excellence, 
hundreds  of  little  shows,  and  thousands  of  beer-tables  help 
to  provide  that  sort  of  recreation  which  is  universally  popu- 
lar among  the  Germans.  This  people  must  have  their  music, 
the  lowliest  as  well  as  the  others,  and  with  the  music  usually 


152  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

something  to  eat  and  drink.  In  Dresden,  on  the  beautiful 
Terrace  overlooking  the  Elbe,  we  heard  Trenkler's  well- 
known  orchestra  play  the  finest  music,  for  fifty  pfennigs 
apiece.  In  Berlin,  in  the  superb  gardens  outside  the  Kunst 
Austellung,  devoted  to  modern  paintings,  we  took  our  sup- 
per one  evening,  seated  between  two  military  bands,  one  of 
which  began  a  selection  as  soon  as  the  other  had  ceased 
playing.  This  sort  of  double  concert  delighted  us  also  at 
the  Berlin  Fair,  and  again  in  the  spacious  Zoological  Garden. 
For  seventy-five  pfennigs'  admission,  one  evening,  at  the 
Berlin  Exposition,  we  listened  to  the  orchestra  which  has 
bewitched  many  nations,  under  the  magical  leadership  of 
Edouard  Strauss.  I  never  realized  the  hunger  which  seems 
to  accompany  the  German's  enjoyment  of  music,  so  fully  as 
after  the  second  act  of  the  opera  of  "  Carmen,"  performed 
at  Kroll's,  in  the  Berlin  Thiergarten.  The  immense  re- 
freshment room  was  crowded  during  the  intermission  by 
many  hundreds,  who  besieged  the  tables  like  newsboys  at 
a  Christmas  dinner.  But  our  highest  musical  pleasures  were 
reached  in  Dresden,  in  the  operas  of  "Tannhauser"  and 
"  Mignon,"  given  at  the  new  Court  Opera  House.  The 
Dresden  opera  is  one  of  the  finest  in  Europe  ;  the  orchestra 
is  unsurpassed,  the  scenery  and  choruses  superb,  and  the 
enthusiasm  awakened  by  Wedekind  and  Scheidemantel  was 
fervent  and  continuous.  We  had  excellent  seats  for  hearing 
and  seeing,  for  fifty  cents  each,  and  the  operas  began  at  the 
merciful  hours  of  seven  and  half-past  seven. 

The  out-door  life  and  delight  in  music  to  which  I  have 
been  referring,  however  unfamiliar,  and  it  may  be  distaste- 
ful, some  phases  of  this  life  may  seem  to  most  Americans, 
have  a  large  influence  on  the  German  character,  helping 
toward  that  placidity,  good-nature,  and  general  content- 
ment which  distinguish  them  from  us.  Contentment  like 
this  among  an  educated  people,  who  have  very  limited  op- 
portunities and  very  meagre  incomes,  is  surely  a  wonderful 
thing  in  this  closing  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I 
scarcely  know  what  the   poor  German  would   do  without 


GERMANY'S  CAPITAL.  153 

his  favorite  amusements ;  and  the  Germans  are  a  poor 
people  compared  with  the  French  and  English,  and  espe- 
cially with  the  Americans.  Prussia,  the  most  prosperous 
part  of  Germany,  has  a  population  of  thirty-eight  millions. 
Last  year  only  twenty-eight  and  four-fifths  per  cent  of  all 
the  families  in  Prussia  (reckoning  five  and  twenty-nine 
hundredths  persons  to  a  family)  had  an  income  of  over 
nine  hundred  marks  (two  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars). 
Consequently  seventy-one  and  one- fifth  per  cent  of  all  the 
Prussian  families  had  incomes  of  less  than  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars,  making  thus  for  the  latter  class,  if  all 
reached  this  maximum,  an  income  per  person  of  forty- 
three  dollars.  Ponder  this  fact,  that,  roughly  speaking, 
twenty-eight  million  five  hundred  thousand  people,  in  the 
best  educated  country  in  the  world,  exist  on  an  income  of 
not  more  than  forty-three  dollars  a  year.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  Germans  are  extremely  economical 
and  provident,  and  can  often  get  as  much  out  of  a  mark  as 
we  get  out  of  a  dollar,  and  they  give  one  the  appearance  of 
a  happy  and  prosperous  people. 

Any  one  who  attempts  to  see  the  art  treasures  in  the  old 
and  new  museums  and  in  the  various  palaces ;  the  modern 
pictures  in  the  Kunst-Ausstellung  (which,  by  the  way,  is 
almost  equal  in  interest  to  the  Paris  salons)  ;  the  military 
and  other  exhibits  in  the  arsenal ;  the  vast  store  of  histori- 
cal curiosities  in  the  Hohenzollern  Museum,  including  the 
household  paraphernalia  of  all  the  Prussian  rulers ;  the  ex- 
hibition of  fine  industrial  art,  not  to  mention  the  various 
scientific  museums  connected  with  the  university,  —  will 
discover,  in  the  weariness  of  his  feet  and  the  confusion  of 
his  brain,  that  Berlin  has  shown  a  noble  rage  for  collecting 
almost  equal  to  that  of  Dresden  or  Paris. 

In  going  to  galleries  sensible  people  must  make  selec- 
tions of  what  they  care  most  to  see.  Thus  they  may  get 
some  satisfaction,  and  not  be  merely  stupefied  by  miles  of 
canvases.  In  the  old  museum  in  Berlin  you  may  study  Frans 
Hals  as  nowhere  else,  and  find  in  Murillo's  St.  Anthony  one 


1^4  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

of  the  masterpieces  of  art.     I  never  have  seen  another  gal- 
lery with  seventeen  fine  Rembrandts  in  one  room. 

The  Old  Palace  has  a  series  of  rooms  rich  and  dazzling  in 
crystal,  gold,  and  silver,  and  containing  some  immense  can- 
vases which  ought  not  to  be  passed  over.  The  great  Jewish 
synagogue,  the  finest  in  the  world,  is  worthy  of  a  visit,  as  is 
also  the  neighboring  Stock  Exchange  and  Board  of  Trade, 
both  together,  where  we  saw  two  thousand  Berliners  trying 
to  buy  and  sell  things.  If  you  lunch  at  the  Cafe"  Bauer, 
do  not  fail  to  call  for  ham  and  eggs,  said  by  good  judges 
to  be  the  best  in  Europe.  And  if  you  hear  that  the  Em- 
peror is  to  drive  down  the  Unter  den  Linden,  wait  for  him 
to  pass,  for  he  is  not  wont  to  disappoint  the  people.  We 
saw  him  driven  behind  two  white  horses  to  the  Old  Palace, 
—  driven  rapidly,  too,  but  not  too  rapidly  to  be  caught  in 
the  camera  which  a  member  of  our  quartet  aimed  at  him. 

We  spent  a  half-day  at  Charlottenburg,  the  beautiful 
suburb  which  is  now  really  a  part  of  the  city.  The  royal 
palace,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length,  is  barely  worth  the 
time  it  takes  to  slide  on  big  felt  slippers  over  its  polished 
floors ;  but  the  mausoleum  near  by,  in  which  are  buried 
Frederick  William  III.  and  Queen  Louise  and  the  old  Em- 
peror William  and  the  Empress  Augusta,  should  be  visited. 
It  seems  to  be  the  most  attractive  place  in  Germany,  judging 
from  the  reverent  crowds  constantly  passing  in  and  out  of  it. 

But  Potsdam,  the  Prussian  Versailles,  deserved  the  busy 
and  happy  day  we  gave  to  it.  A  fast  train  took  us  out  in 
about  twenty  minutes.  We  found  the  city,  so  dear  to 
Frederick  the  Great,  charming  in  the  extreme.  The  lakes, 
which  are  the  expansion  of  the  river  Havel,  and  the  hills, 
covered  with  forests,  give  to  Potsdam  a  beauty  which,  from 
its  situation,  does  not  belong  to  Berlin.  We  could  not 
enter  the  new  palace,  as  the  Kaiser  was  then  in  residence. 
But  we  saw  the  palace  of  an  earlier  date  crowded  with  in- 
teresting memorials  of  the  great  Frederick,  less  interesting  to 
me,  however,  than  a  little  bronze  statue  of  Thomas  Carlyle. 
We  visited  Frederick's  grave,  in  the  Garrison  Church,  a  very 


GERMANY'S  CAPITAL.  1 55 

plain  and  cellar-like  sepulchral  chamber,  where  the  great 
Napoleon  had  been  before  us.  In  the  Church  of  Peace  we 
saw  the  tomb  and  monument  to  the  present  Emperor's  un- 
fortunate father,  Frederick  the  Noble.  But  almost  every  one 
knows  that  the  chief  interest  of  Potsdam  centres  in  the  great 
park  and  the  picturesque  palace  of  Sans  Souci.  The  palace 
is  of  only  one  story,  but  its  situation  at  the  head  of  a  suc- 
cession of  terraces  is  so  fine  that  one  is  not  surprised  that 
Frederick  the  Great  lived  there  most  of  his  royal  life.  Here 
it  was  that  Voltaire  kept  company  with  the  great  soldier  and 
king,  the  real  founder  of  the  German  Empire,  who  had  so 
little  regard  for  Germany  that  he  always  spoke  and  wrote  in 
French.  You  really  get  close  both  to  Voltaire  and  to 
Frederick,  the  shrewd  man  of  iron  will,  as  the  intelligent 
guide  leads  you  through  the  rooms  of  Sans  Souci.  A 
visit  to  the  extensive  and  interesting  orangery,  and  a 
drive  by  several  royal  and  princely  villas  to  the  Chateau  of 
Babelsberg,  a  favorite  residence  of  William  the  Great,  as 
they  are  now  beginning  to  call  the  old  Kaiser,  ended  our 
visit  in  Potsdam,  although,  after  our  return,  the  indefatiga- 
bles  felt  that  some  music  in  the  Thiergarten  was  the  only 
proper  ending  of  the  day. 

But  comparatively  few  Americans  appear  to  care  much 
for  Berlin.  The  great  tides  of  travel  flow  to  London,  across 
the  channel  to  Paris,  and  up  the  Rhine  to  Switzerland.  It 
must  be  said  of  Berlin  that  it  lacks  interesting  history.  The 
English  and  French  capitals,  like  Rome  and  Athens,  are 
haunted  by  the  great  forms  of  the  past.  The  religious  wars 
of  France  and  the  series  of  French  revolutions  have  given 
to  the  streets  of  Paris  a  kind  of  interest  which  does  not 
belong  to  Berlin.  But  as  nations  grow  more  prosperous,  as 
the  world  sweeps  into  the  ampler  day,  one  kind  of  history 
dwindles.  The  world's  new  capitals,  whether  on  the  shores 
of  the  Spree  or  the  banks  of  Lake  Michigan,  must  find  their 
glory  in  the  things  of  the  spirit. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FAREWELL   TO    GERMANY. 

T^HE  other  day  I  took  my  little  children  to  see  the 
-*■  famous  Career,  in  which  university  offenders  are  im- 
prisoned, and  also  to  visit  the  Museum  of  Gottingen  An- 
tiquities. On  the  door  of  the  prison  some  wag  has  painted 
the  words,  "The  Lord  bless  thy  going  in."  There  are 
four  small  rooms,  each  furnished  with  bed,  chair,  and  table 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  brave  student  who  has  ap- 
peared on  the  street  with  his  duelling  wounds  unhealed,  or 
who  has  disturbed  the  quiet  of  the  night  with  his  drunken 
pranks.  Arrested  by  the  police,  the  offender  shows  his 
student's  card,  and  is  handed  over  to  the  university  Pedells. 
It  is  considered  no  disgrace,  but  almost  an  honor,  to  have 
spent  a  few  nights,  or  perhaps  a  week,  in  the  Career.  In 
Jena  the  student  is  sometimes  driven  in  a  carriage  and 
escorted  by  his  friends  to  his  dungeon,  and  the  mothers 
supply  as  many  good  things  to  eat  as  an  American  mur- 
derer would  be  apt  to  receive.  While  it  is  no  disgrace  to 
have  been  in  the  Career,  it  is  a  disgrace  and  a  lasting  injury 
to  have  been  on  the  records  of  the  state  police.  Those 
thus  offending  must  serve  an  extra  year  in  the  army.  The 
walls  of  the  Career  are  covered  with  the  artistic  work  of  the 
prisoners,  —  immense  profile  heads  of  themselves,  the  caps 
and  coats  of  arms  of  the  various  student  societies,  grotesque 
forms  of  animals,  and  plenty  of  comic  doggerel.  The  coat 
of  arms  of  the  United  States  is  not  lacking  in  the  midst  of 
these  mural  decorations.  Such  imprisonments  do  not  jus- 
tify any  interference  by  the  State  Department  at  Washing- 


FAREWELL    TO    GERMANY.  1 57 

ton.     The  Career  is  a  German  institution,  and  nothing  like 
it  could  probably  be  domesticated  in  America. 

More  interesting  still  is  the  neighboring  Museum  of  Got- 
tingen  Antiquities,  where  the  German  Frau  exhibits  the 
doors  of  the  old  Career,  on  one  of  which  the  young  Count 
von  Bismarck  carved  his  name  during  his  hours  of  solitary 
meditation.  Here  you  may  see  a  picture  of  the  walled  town 
of  Gottingen  besieged  by  Tilly,  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
his  red  artillery  flashing  fire  from  the  adjacent  hills,  but  all 
in  vain.  Here  are  many  relics  of  mediaevalism,  the  iron 
frames  in  which  the  bodies  of  criminals  were  suspended, 
immense  stocks  where  the  feet  of  four  men  could  be  held 
fast  at  one  time,  models  of  some  of  the  castles,  strange  old 
rusted  cannon  and  cannon-balls,  from  the  religious  wars  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  coins  bearing  the  head  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  and  dug  up  in  this  vicinity,  carved  beams  from  the 
old  houses,  the  Poor  Sinners'  Bell,  that  tolled  at  the  execu- 
tion of  criminals,  covered  sedan-chairs,  in  which  professors 
used  to  be  carried,  portraits  of  the  learned  teachers  of  the 
last  century,  with  their  heavy  white  wigs,  some  splendid 
spoils  from  the  old  Catholic  churches,  and  many  cos- 
tumes of  former  times.  Such  a  museum  is  extremely 
valuable  to  the  local  antiquary,  and  I  should  counsel  stu- 
dents to  become  familiar  with  it  early  in  their  residence 
here.  It  will  help  the  imagination  to  people  the  streets 
with  the  men  and  women  of  former  generations,  and  to 
bring  back  the  figures  and  military  costumes  of  the  strong 
cruel  men  who  once  held  the  neighboring  castles,  Plesse, 
Hardenberg,  Hanstein,  and  the  Gleichen.  There  is  a 
strange  attractive  power  about  these  ruins.  The  towers 
of  Plesse,  two  leagues  to  the  north,  are  monuments  of 
a  semi-barbarous  feudalism  which  has  forever  vanished. 
Plesse  is  the  queen  of  the  Leine  valley,  and  a  most  delight- 
ful and  picturesque  point  for  excursionists. 

"  On  a  wooded  comely  mount 

Stands  the  Plesse,  old  and  gray ; 
Proudly  rise  the  lonely  towers, 
In  the  landscape,  far  away." 


158  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

The  strong  castle  has  had  a  long  and  stormy  history.  It 
was  besieged  and  taken  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  but  it 
had  six  hundred  years  of  history  before  that  terrible  time. 
The  spirit  which  ruled  in  the  castle  was  the  spirit  of  the 
robber.  The  haughty  old  barons  were  fierce  birds  of  prey, 
perched  on  a  crag  which  gave  them  wide  observation  of 
the  merchants  who  pursued  their  journeys  up  and  down  the 
valley.  The  names  of  these  baronial  thieves  have  vanished 
from  the  earth,  — 

"  Save  that  these  two  ruined  towers, 
Grim  memorials  of  the  past, 
Stand  yet  in  gloomy  pride 
On  the  mountain,  strong  and  fast." 

The  honest  traders  of  peaceful  Gottingen  and  the  out- 
raged peasant-folk  became  weary  of  submission  to  the. 
galling  yoke  of  the  robber-tyrant,  and  so  they  stormed  the 
castle,  hanged  the  baron  from  his  own  tower,  put  firebrands 
into  his  stronghold,  tumbled  down  his  cruel  walls  and  gloomy 
prisons,  and  "  rooted  out  the  robber  nest."  And  here  comes 
in  the  story  of  how  Lady  Maria  Plesse,  unwilling  to  be  cap- 
tured, mounted  her  horse,  and,  clasping  her  infant  to  her 
breast,  sped  away  toward  the  neighboring  castle  of  Har- 
denberg.  But,  beset  by  armed  men  on  every  hand,  and 
determined  not  to  commit  herself  and  her  boy  to  the  mob, 
she  turns  her  steed  toward  a  lofty  precipice,  and  with  whip 
and  spur  urges  the  courser  to  spring  thirty  feet  into  the  air 
and  down  to  the  rocky  road  beneath.  Mother,  child,  and 
horse,  marvellous  to  relate,  are  not  crushed  to  death,  but 
escape  ;  and  the  pursuers  give  many  a  brave  hurrah  for  the 
brave  deed  nobly  done.  The  place  of  this  adventure  is  the 
famous  Maria  Spring,  where  on  every  Wednesday  afternoon 
of  the  summer  the  students  and  young  women  of  Gottingen 
assemble  for  the  merry  dance  in  the  open  air  and  beneath 
the  spreading  trees.  Who  shall  say  that  the  picturesque- 
ness  of  German  history  does  not  rival  the  picturesqueness 
of  German  scenery? 

Not  long  ago  I  spent  a  morning  with  my  son  in  walking 


FAREWELL    TO   GERMANY.  1 59 

through  the  immense  Gottingen  library.  Its  half-million 
books  gave  the  boy  an  overwhelming  impression  of  the 
amount  of  thinking  and  writing  that  has  been  done  in  the 
world.  Here  is  a  room  crowded  with  dictionaries ;  here  is 
a  collection  of  thousands  of  bound  newspaper  volumes ; 
that  alcove  is  given  up  to  German  hymn-books ;  here  are 
immense  alcoves  devoted  to  American  history,  with  larger 
ones  given  to  English  and  German  history ;  here  is  a  room 
sacred  to  manuscripts.  One  immense  section  is  given  up 
to  romances  in  many  languages.  Here  is  the  great  room 
where  the  poet  Goethe  studied  for  six  months.  It  contains 
marble  busts  of  many  eminent  scholars.  Standing  before 
the  bust  of  Ritschl,  the  guide  said  to  us  :  "  He  had  many 
friends ;  he  had  many  enemies."  We  were  shown  the 
alphabetical  catalogue,  in  six  hundred  folio  volumes.  Per- 
haps the  library,  next  to  the  university  professor,  is  the 
most  characteristic  feature,  in  the  whole  higher  life  of 
Germany. 

People  come  here  to  increase  their  knowledge  of  the 
German  language,  a  key  to  some  of  the  chief  intellectual 
treasures  of  mankind.  I  have  heard  much  talk  about  learn- 
ing German.  It  is  a  wide  field  for  earnest  and  humorous 
discussion.  There  are  some  Americans  here  who  have 
really  made  great  progress  in  mastering  one  of  the  most 
difficult  and  unnatural  of  languages.  The  ease  with  which 
Germans  learn  to  speak  English  fluently  is  in  vivid  contrast 
with  the  wearisome  slowness  with  which  most  mature  Ameri- 
cans learn  to  speak  German.  But  some  of  my  countrymen 
of  youthful  years  are  speedily  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of 
German  conversation.  My  two  older  children  adopted  one 
of  the  best  methods  of  accomplishing  good  results.  For 
six  months  they  were  persistent  students  in  a  small  family 
school  where  no  word  of  English  was  permitted.  Learn- 
ing several  lessons  a  day,  reciting  passages  given  for  memo- 
rization, writing  grammatical  exercises,  hearing  only  German 
lectures  and  sermons,  talking  at  the  table  and  in  the  afternoon 
walks  with  the  teachers,  receiving  German  callers,  playing 


l6o  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

German  games,  reading  German  story-books,  —  they  gained 
a  ready  and  accurate  use  of  conversational  speech  in  a  much 
shorter  time  than  those  who  subject  themselves  to  a  less 
severe  discipline.  Many  students  come  here  chiefly  to  learn 
the  technical  vocabulary  of  some  one  department  of  knowl- 
edge, and  they  are  quickly  surpassed,  in  the  facile  use  of 
ordinary  speech,  by  young  children.  My  son  Arthur,  twelve 
years  old,  has  been  for  six  months  in  the  Realschule,  and 
for  two  months  has  had  two  hours  a  day  with  a  young  Ger- 
man woman,  walking  and  talking.  Little  Eleanor,  six  years 
old,  has  had  this  same  teacher,  and  has  had  about  five 
months  in  a  German  kindergarten.  Both  of  them  now 
speak  German  fluently,  and  understand  ordinary  conversa- 
tion easily.  They  even  dream  and  talk  in  their  sleep  in  the 
new  language.  What  they  have  learned  they  have  gained 
without  the  painful  effort  necessary  to  older  people.  We 
were  amused  to  hear  Eleanor  remark,  "  I  thought  German 
was  hard  at  first,  but  now  it 's  just  as  easy  !  "  In  learning 
languages,  as  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  a  little  child  shall 
lead  them.  Germans  themselves  rarely  realize  how  diffi- 
cult their  tongue  is.  A  young  Englishman  was  engaged  to 
a  German  girl,  and  he  confided  to  her  that  he  never  could 
tell  when  he  should  use  "  mich  "  and  when  "  mir."  "  Oh, 
both  are  right  !  "  said  she,  "  but  '  mir  '  is  a  little  more 
cotntne  il  faut 7"  A  young  American  woman  in  Gottingen 
having  a  cold  in  her  chest  wished  to  consult  a  doctor; 
but  first  she  consulted  her  dictionary,  and  discovered  that 
one  word  for  chest  is  "  Schrank,"  which  means  a  chest  of 
drawers  or  wardrobe.  Imagine  the  surprise  of  the  physician 
when  the  young  lady  said  to  him,  "  I  have  a  bad  pain  in 
my  wardrobe  !  " 

One  of  the  experiences,  both  annoying  and  amusing,  which 
we  have  had  in  Germany,  rose  from  the  difficulty  in  getting 
shop-keepers  and  dressmakers  to  send  in  their  bills.  In 
one  case  we  have  for  three  months  and  as  many  as  a  dozen 
times  urgently,  earnestly,  pleadingly  asked  for  the  account, 
but  in  vain.     We  have  spent  days  and  travelled  miles  in  the 


FAREWELL    TO   GERMANY.  l6l 

endeavor  to  pay  our  bills  before  leaving  Gottingen.  The 
theory  is  that  the  sending  of  a  bill  implies  distrust,  and 
the  longer  the  delay,  the  greater  the  honor  done  the  pur- 
chaser. I  feel  that  I  am  held  in  high  esteem  in  this  com- 
munity !  Students'  bills  in  this  university  have  been  known 
to  run  for  forty-five  years.  Americans  are  not  pleased  with 
the  unbusinesslike  habits,  the  wearisome  slowness,  the  fre- 
quent shiftlessness,  and  the  almost  unvarying  failure  to  fulfil 
promises,  in  the  making  of  clothes  and  the  delivery  of 
goods,  discoverable  among  this  people. 

Physicians  here  do  not  render  any  bills.     It  is  not  con- 
sistent with  their  ideas  of  dignity.     One  must  inquire  dili- 
gently of  the  initiated  as  to  the  amount  that  should  be  sent. 
The  whole  system  appears  to  me  unworthy.     This  "  What 
you  please,  Sir,"  business  is  unmanly.     It  seems  almost  like 
part  of  the  "tipping"  system.     If  the  medical   laborer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire,  he  ought  to  be  willing  to  indicate  the 
amount  he  expects  to  receive.     Some  strange  performances 
occur  under   this  way  of  doing  things.     I  know  a  young 
American  over   here,  whose  wife  during  a  severe    illness 
had  been  faithfully  and  skilfully  attended  by  an  eminent 
physician  in  a  great  city.     This  American,  Mr.  K.,  calling 
on  the  doctor,  thanked  him  for  his  services,  and  asked  him 
what   he   should   pay.       "  I  could  n't  think  of  taking  any- 
thing," was  the  answer.     Mr.  K.  insisted  that  he  could  not 
receive  such  services  gratuitously,  and  finally  the  physician 
said  that  he  might  be  willing  to  receive  a  gift.     Mr.  K.  ex- 
pressed his  satisfaction,  and  asked  if  books  or  curios  would 
be  acceptable.    The  doctor  said  he  had  a  passion  for  Persian 
rugs,  and  the  two  went  off  together  to  a  shop  to  find  a  rug 
costing  the  eighty  thalers  which  Mr.  K.  said  that  he  would 
be  glad  to  give.     The  doctor  consulted  the  rug-dealer  pri- 
vately, and  then  four  beautiful  rugs,  each  costing,  however, 
eighty- five  thalers,  were  shown  to  the  American.     He  with 
difficulty  beat  the  man  down  to  eighty  thalers,  and  then  the 
physician  departed  with  his  rug.     Mr.  K.  was  delighted  with 

the  Persian  fabrics,  and  said  he  would  take  the  remaining 

1 1 


1 62  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

three  at  eighty-five  thalers  each.  The  dealer  was  direfully 
distressed,  and  was  compelled  to  confess  that  the  rugs  were 
worth  one  hundred  and  thirty  thalers,  and  that  the  physician 
had  arranged  with  him  to  pay  the  difference  between  that 
sum  and  whatever  the  American  was  willing  to  offer.  Mr. 
K.  did  not  buy,  and  he  realized  that  in  beating  down  the 
price  he  had  compelled  the  high-toned,  benevolent  doctor 
to  pay  five  thalers  more  than  he  had  schemed  to  give  ! 

One  of  our  great  surprises  in  Germany  has  been  the  rough 
discipline  to  which  the  boys  in  the  Realschule,  where  my 
son  attends,  are  subjected.  I  do  not  wonder  that  visitors, 
unless  provided  with  a  permit  from  the  Cultus-Minister 
in  Berlin,  are  excluded  from  this  school.  The  teachers 
cuffing  the  boys'  heads  and  using  heavy  rattans  with  great 
vigor  on  their  shoulders,  punishing  in  these  ways  for  the 
lightest  offences,  display  their  own  cruel  and  domineering 
tempers,  and  promote  those  habits  of  subjection  to  authority 
everywhere  taught  in  Germany.  My  son  reports  that  half 
his  class  are  sometimes  in  tears  during  a  morning.  He 
gave  us  the  names  and  offences  of  sixteen  whom  he  saw 
castigated  during  a  two  hours'  session.  Some  of  the  offences 
were,  failure  to  hold  a  pen  correctly,  looking  at  the  book 
while  the  teacher  was  talking,  handling  the  objects  on  the 
desk,  making  a  wrong  answer  in  the  written  paper,  and 
other  school  crimes  equally  grave.  Only  the  German  boys, 
I  should  add,  are  beaten  in  this  rude  way.  These  things  in 
regard  to  German  school-life  are  worth  mentioning  as  an- 
other illustration  of  the  fact  that  we  have  here  the  reign  of 
physical  force.  The  army  is  omnipotent ;  officers  of  the 
army  outrank  socially  even  the  professors  of  the  universities, 
and  we  are  sometimes  told  that  when  America  equals  Ger- 
many in  civilization,  she  too  will  have  a  great  military  force. 
Judged  by  most  of  the  tests  of  civilization  given  by  Lord 
Russell  in  his  Saratoga  address,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  say- 
ing that  our  republic  already  outranks  this  military  empire. 

The  American  Colony  gave  its  departing  members  a  cor- 
dial send-off  at  the  Gottingen  station.     The  day  was  bright, 


FAREWELL    TO   GERMANY.  163 

apparently  in  cheerful  augury  of  our  long  travels.  The  hap- 
piest people  at  the  station  seemed  to  be  the  baggagemen, 
when  they  discovered  an  overweight  of  four  hundred  kilos 
in  our  luggage.  It  is  not  easy  for  all  of  my  countrymen  to 
distinguish  the  weights  and  measures  of  the  decimal  system. 
One  of  our  colony  always  reports  her  weight  as  seventy-one 
kilometers,  and  another  seriously  informed  a  friend  that  it 
was  six  liters  to  the  summit  of  the  Brocken  !  But  he  must 
have  stopped  at  all  the  restaurants.  Bremen,  the  free  and 
prosperous,  afforded  us  in  Hillman's  Hotel  almost  American 
comfort. 

Two  of  my  family,  of  whom  I  was  one,  did  not  let  the 
late  hour  of  arrival  prevent  a  visit  to  the  famous  Rathskeller, 
the  smoky  paradise  of  the  wine-bibbers.  Here  we  saw  the 
Twelve  Apostles,  as  the  twelve  wine-casks  are  named,  filled 
with  vintages,  some  of  them  dating  back  more  than  two 
hundred  years.  The  guide  informed  us  that  they  did  not 
draw  wine  from  the  cask  named  Judas,  making  an  exception, 
however,  by  special  request  in  the  case  of  the  late  Emperor 
Frederick.  We  saw  the  wine-room  called  the  Rose,  cele- 
brated in  one  of  Heine's  poems,  so  named  from  the  im- 
mense red  rose  painted  upon  the  ceiling.  As  we  stood 
beneath  this  queen  of  flowers,  the  omniscient  etymological 
guide  informed  us  that  we  now  understood  the  origin  of  the 
expression  "  sub  rosa  "  !  In  one  of  the  cellars  a  great  wine- 
cask,  with  its  carved  and  gilded  end,  preaches  a  good  tem- 
perance sermon,  for  on  it  are  four  most  disreputable  faces, 
cut  in  wood,  one  of  which  represents  the  wine-devil,  quite 
as  ugly  as  any  whiskey  fiend,  while  three  others  show  us  the 
wine-drinker  before  midnight,  at  midnight,  and  the  next 
morning. 

A  ride  of  nearly  two  hours  on  the  tender  took  us  from 
Bremerhaven  down  the  Weser  channel,  to  where  our  good 
ship,  the  "Trave,"  lay  at  anchor.  Our  experience  on  this 
neat  and  well-managed  boat  of  the  North  German  Lloyd 
Company  renewed  all  my  enthusiasm  for  this  splendid  line 
of  steamers.     The  Lloyd  can  give  lessons  to  some  of  the 


1 64  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

English  ships  in  the  art  of  making  American  travellers  com- 
fortable and  happy. 

In  bidding  Germany  good-by,  I  wish  to  record  a  few 
conclusions  which  I  have  reached  in  regard  to  the  compara- 
tive merits  of  German  and  American  civilization.  At  the 
outset  let  me  say  that  I  am  convinced  that  the  use  of  alcohol 
as  a  beverage  is  in  certain  respects  a  far  more  serious  evil 
in  America  than  here.  The  universal  drink  in  Germany  is 
a  mild  beer.  The  sale  of  beer  and  the  drinking  of  it  are 
precisely  as  respectable  as  the  sale  and  drinking  of  tea  and 
coffee  with  Americans.  It  must  be  truly  said  of  this  drink 
that  the  use  of  it  is  often  connected  with  the  quiet  delights 
of  outdoor  recreation.  Its  intoxicating  power  is  very  small 
compared  with  that  of  American  beers.  It  is  cheaper  than 
tea  and  coffee,  and  takes  their  place  in  the  humble  repasts 
of  the  poor.  Such  an  institution  as  the  American  saloon, 
the  ally  and  tool  of  corrupt  politics,  the  haunt  of  criminals, 
the  destroyer  of  homes,  is  not  found  here.  So  far  as  I  can 
discover,  lawlessness  is  no  more  associated  with  the  sale  of 
beer  than  with  the  sale  of  sugar  and  tobacco.  The  pernicious 
habit  of  "  treating  "  does  not  exist  in  Germany. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  said  that  the  excessive  use 
of  beer  leads  to  drunkenness.  I  have  seen  nearly  a  dozen 
intoxicated  persons  on  the  streets  of  this  town.  People 
have  told  me  that  at  the  time  of  the  Schuetzenfest  large 
numbers  were  seen  mildly  drunk.  The  horrible  forms  of 
intoxication  leading  so  frequently  in  England  and  America 
to  brutal  crimes,  apparently  are  rare  in  Germany.  But  the 
excessive  use  of  beer,  which  is  not  uncommon,  has  a  stupe- 
fying and  sometimes  a  brutalizing  effect.  It  is  pitiful  and 
shocking  to  see  so  many  young  men,  some  of  them  students, 
who  have  manifestly  coarsened  their  natures  by  the  plentiful 
use  of  this  beverage.  I  believe  it  to  be  one  of  the  enemies 
of  the  happiest  family  life.  Although  families  drink  together 
in  the  cafes  and  gardens,  still,  to  a  large  extent,  the  men  do 
not  spend  their  evenings  in  the  household,  but  in  social 
circles  where  much  beer  is  taken,  a  few  words  are  spoken, 


FAREWELL    TO    GERMANY.  165 

and  some  songs  are  sung.  It  is  also  an  enemy  of  the 
best  Christian  life.  A  nation  that  finds  one  of  its  chief 
pleasures  in  beer  is  not  apt  to  be  particularly  responsive  to 
the  spirit  and  appeals  of  the  Gospel.  The  pastor  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  Gottingen  told  me  that  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  get  his  young  people  together  for  an  evening 
meeting  of  any  kind.  The  young  men,  following  the 
example  of  university  life,  have  their  "  Kneipen,"  or  drink- 
ing-parties.  Americans  who  have  been  in  Germany  a  long 
time  have  seen  ample  evidences  of  evil  from  the  prevalent 
drinking  customs.  The  amount  of  money  wasted  is  im- 
mense, although  the  average  consumption  in  Germany  is 
less  than  in  England.  Certain  diseases  doubtless  are  pro- 
duced by  this  favorite  drink. 

I  have  sometimes  intimated  that  Germany  is  the  best 
governed  country  that  I  know.  Paternal  government  here 
shows  its  most  favorable  aspects.  To  a  large  degree  the 
people  are  cared  for.  Slums  are  not  found,  even  in  Berlin. 
Darkest  London  and  darkest  New  York  would  be  impossible 
here.  There  is  no  marked  separation  of  classes  in  their 
places  of  residence.  Rich  and  poor  occupy  the  same  block 
and  different  parts  of  the  same  building.  The  streets  in  the 
various  quarters  of  the  great  and  small  cities  have  seemed  to 
me  equally  clean.  I  have  looked  in  vain,  for  the  last  seven 
months,  to  see  people  whose  clothes  were  ragged.  There 
are  plenty  of  poor  and  patched  garments,  but  they  are 
carefully  mended.     Sewing  is  taught  in  the  schools. 

But,  acknowledging  all  the  good  results  of  paternal  gov- 
ernment, I  must  confess  that  the  evils  of  it  are  also  appar- 
ent. The  Germans  are  governed,  and  they  expect  to  be 
governed,  and  like  to  be  governed,  and  they  would  now  be 
at  a  great  loss  if,  to  any  large  extent,  they  were  asked  to 
govern  themselves.  There  is,  of  course,  an  imperial  parlia- 
ment, but  some  years  ago  Bismarck  bluntly  told  its  mem- 
bers, who  were  slow  in  consenting  to  the  imperial  policy, 
that  they  were  there  for  counsel  and  not  for  dictation. 
The  nation  has  a  horror  of  disorder.    It  has  now  attained 


1 66  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

to  unity.  It  believes  that  a  strong  central  government  is 
its  only  protection  from  powerful  enemies,  and  seems  to 
imagine  that  constant  restriction  of  individual  liberty  and 
individual  initiative  is  essential  to  permanent  order.  The 
nightmares  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  and  the  various  French 
revolutions  appear  to  be  still  hanging  over  this  German 
land.  Police  surveillance,  universal  restriction  of  freedom 
in  the  expression  of  opinion,  and  imperial  initiative,  — 
these,  with  a  ubiquitous  standing  army  and  heavy  taxes, 
are  leading  features  of  German  national  life.  At  one  time 
during  the  last  summer  more  than  forty  persons  were  in 
German  prisons  for  the  crime  of  lese-majeste.  I  am  told 
that  these  crimes  against  the  sovereign  power  were  usually 
petty  offences.  Two  professors  of  German  universities  are 
now  in  jail  for  teaching  in  their  lecture-rooms  a  history  not 
pleasing  to  the  powers  that  be.  Few  Germans  would  dare 
to  say  in  a  public  meeting  that  they  believed  Bismarck  to 
be  a  greater  man  than  the  present  Kaiser.  "  The  divinity 
that  doth  hedge  a  king  "  must  here  be  sacredly  respected. 

Yet  Bismarck  doubtless  is  the  popular  hero  of  Germany. 
Pictures  of  him  are  almost  as  common  as  of  the  old  Em- 
peror William.  Memorials  of  him  are  everywhere  cher- 
ished. He  is  the  supreme  embodiment  of  German  force 
and  shrewd  far-seeing  intelligence,  and  he  accomplished 
the  great  work  which  was  the  prime  necessity  of  his  genera- 
tion. But  in  regard  for  liberty,  in  the  passion  for  right- 
eousness, in  sympathy  for  the  oppressed,  in  true  humanity, 
he  is  one  hundred  years  behind  the  Christian  statesman- 
ship of  Mr.  Gladstone.  By  his  stony  disregard  for  the 
suffering  Christians  of  Armenia  and  Crete,  he  evidences 
one  of  the  limitations  of  his  nature.  In  saying,  as  he  is 
reported  to  have  done,  that  the  children  of  Germany  — 
who  are  very  numerous  indeed  —  would  furnish  food  for 
cannon,  he  shows  the  temper  of  the  First  Napoleon  rather 
than  of  Gladstone  and  Lincoln. 

Socialism  thrives  in  Germany  as  nowhere  else,  partly  on 
account  of  taxes  and  petty  tyrannies,  but  also  in  part  be- 


FAREWELL    TO   GERMANY.  167 

cause  of  severe  governmental  restrictions.  The  police  are 
present  at  socialistic  meetings,  and  when  the  talking  reaches 
a  certain  point,  the  meetings  are  dispersed.  Yet  more  than 
forty  socialists  are  in  the  German  parliament.  In  England, 
however,  where  the  chasm  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  is 
wider  than  here,  and  where  the  people  have  more  liberty  of 
speech,  assembly,  and  remonstrance,  socialism  does  not 
flourish.  I  am  told  that  there  is  scarcely  a  socialist  in  the 
British  Parliament.  A  German  professor  in  Berlin  re- 
marked to  an  American  friend  that  he  had  attended  so- 
cialist meetings  in  London  where  half  the  speeches  were  in 
German.  Experience  has  shown  that  it  is  much  safer  to 
give  those  who  think  they  have  a  grievance  the  full  liberty 
of  airing  it.  That  is  not  the  theory  or  practice,  however, 
in  Germany.  Force,  force  !  —  one  gets  tired  of  this  wor- 
ship of  might. 

I  have  intimated  previously  that  the  range  of  intellectual 
liberty  is  wider  here  than  in  America.  Men  may  think, 
speak,  and  print  what  they  please  on  every  scientific,  philo- 
sophical, and  religious  question,  up  to  the  point  where  the 
speaking  and  printing  touch  anything  that  concerns  the 
political  or  national  life.  Nothing  must  be  done  that  might 
disturb  the  present  order.  Agitation,  the  "  marshalling  of 
the  conscience  of  the  nation  for  the  making  of  its  laws,"  is 
practically  unknown.  So  tremendously  is  the  average  Ger- 
man disposed  to  take  the  side  of  the  established  govern- 
ment that  oppressed  populations  uttering  any  cry  of  pain 
receive  from  him  but  little  sympathy.  The  instinct  of  Ger- 
many is  to  side  with  Spain  and  not  Cuba,  with  Turkey  and 
not  with  Crete  and  Armenia.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
many  Germans  excuse  the  Armenian  massacres,  but  I  have 
heard  some  of  them,  people  of  high  intelligence,  do  so  on 
account  of  the  alleged  habit  of  Armenians  of  making  them- 
selves rich  at  the  expense  of  others.  I  have  even  heard 
them  say  that  the  German  peasants  of  Hesse,  who  believe 
that  they  have  been  oppressed  by  Jewish  money-lenders, 
would,    if  the    government    permitted  them,    butcher   the 


1 68  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

whole  Jewish  population,  men,  women,  and  children  ;  and 
such  a  procedure  was  vehemently  justified  in  my  presence. 
Of  course  I  put  no  faith  in  this  slander  of  German  peas- 
ants, and  other  Germans  to  whom  I  have  submitted  the 
case  repudiate  it  with  the  utmost  scorn. 

Under  the  present  condition  of  things  there  cannot  be 
any  wide,  active  interest  in  political  affairs.  While  Ger- 
many stands  in  the  foremost  rank  in  administration,  in  real 
political  development  she  seems  to  me  to  be  one  hundred 
years  behind  England,  France,  and  America.  A  lack  of 
the  highest  self-respect,  of  the  ability  of  self-government, 
a  lack  of  the  power  of  initiative  and  the  spirit  of  enter- 
prise and  of  independence,  —  such  are  some  of  the  evils 
occasioned  by  an  excess  of  government  from  above.  The 
Germans  know  comparatively  little  of  the  better  side  of 
American  life  ;  they  are  taught  by  learned  professors  that 
republics  are,  and  must  be,  short-lived,  and  they  hate  Eng- 
land, "  a  democracy  under  the  form  of  monarchy."  The 
omnipresence  of  the  soldier,  and  devotion  to  militarism, 
while  they  have  some  good  effects,  produce  also  demoraliz- 
ing consequences.  The  prevalence  of  illegitimacy  in  cities 
where  great  masses  of  soldiers  are  stationed  is  very  well 
known.  The  children  in  the  schools  are  taught  such  rever- 
ence for  the  government  and  the  army  that  there  is  real 
peril  lest  the  coming  generation  identify  right  with  might. 
Even  now  it  is  apparent  that  the  people  are  too  apt  to 
believe  a  thing  wrong  simply  because  it  is  forbidden,  and 
to  teach  for  divine  doctrines  the  commandments  of  men. 

In  the  conclusions  to  which  I  have  been  led,  and  which 
I  have  just  expressed,  I  do  not  mean  to  cancel  any  of  the 
more  favorable  opinions  of  German  life  heretofore  given. 
This  is  a  great  people,  recently  come  to  its  own,  standing 
in  conscious  and  continual  danger,  and  hence  inclined  to 
the  undue  worship  of  order  and  government.  Would  that 
America  might  catch  a  due  portion  of  the  German  spirit  in 
this  regard  !  Added  to  our  enterprise,  splendid  indepen- 
dence, and  faith  in  freedom,  the  German  respect  for  law 


FAREWELL    TO   GERMANY.  169 

would  vastly  aid  the  right  development  of  our  people.  I 
think  that  the  true  German  spirit  is  not  patient  under 
oppression.  There  are  plenty  of  ruined  castles  all  about 
Gottingen,  which  show  what  destruction  was  dealt  out  by 
the  honest  burghers  to  their  lordly  tyrants.  It  is  said  that 
when  the  corner-stone  of  any  German  castle  was  laid,  a 
little  child  who  never  had  spoken  was  buried  alive  beneath 
it,  on  account  of  the  superstition  that  thus  the  castle  would 
become  impregnable.  But  the  lordly  structures  built  on 
buried  innocency  and  broken  hearts  have  been  tumbled 
down.  One  has  the  feeling  that  there  are  a  good  many 
other  castles  of  blood  standing  in  the  world  to-day  which 
are  doomed  to  the  fate  of  Plesse  and  Drachenfels. 

"  Careless  seems  the  great  Avenger ;  history's  pages  but  record 
One  death-grapple  in  the  darkness  'twixt  old  systems  and  the  Word." 

But  the  word  of  justice  and  humanity  is  bound  to  get  the 
better  of  old  systems  in  Russia  and  Turkey,  in  Germany 
and  America,  if  they  have  not  the  enduring  texture  of 
righteousness. 

We  have  much  to  learn  from  Germany.  Germany  has 
even  more  to  learn  from  us.  Both  must  learn  their  lessons. 
Our  entire  American  life  is  vitiated  or  endangered  by  rank, 
and  it  sometimes  seems  growing,  lawlessness.  If  sectional 
lines  are  drawn  wide  and  deep  between  East  and  West, 
North  and  South  ;  if  the  divisions  between  capital  and  labor, 
the  rich  and  the  poor,  are  embittered  by  the  harangues  of 
demagogues ;  and  if  the  rights  of  the  national  government 
to  enforce  its  own  laws  are  challenged  successfully  by  the 
very  spirit  that  fired  on  Fort  Sumter,  —  the  pessimistic  pre- 
dictions of  German  professors  in  regard  to  our  future  may 
be  in  the  way  of  incipient    fulfilment. 

Few  things  strike  an  American  so  unfavorably  in  Germany 
as  the  general  attitude  of  mind  in  regard  to  women.  What- 
ever may  be  justly  said  of  the  great  and  wholesome  influence 
of  German  women  —  and  the  case  of  the  present  Empress 
is   in    point — I  do    not   find    that   women   are  as  highly 


1 70  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

esteemed  here  as  in  America.  The  outward  forms  of  polite- 
ness are  more  demonstrative  ;  but  men  look  upon  women 
as  so  much  inferior  to  themselves  intellectually  that  true 
companionship,  real  mental  fellowship  between  men  and 
women,  appears  to  me  less  common  than  with  us.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  school-life  there  is  a  separation  between 
boys  and  girls  ;  they  are  not  treated  in  the  same  way  during 
any  part  of  their  mental  history.  The  lesson-book  for  the 
boy  is  not  always  the  lesson-book  for  the  girl.  The  young 
German  women  are  in  some  respects  more  accomplished 
than  their  American  sisters.  They  know  more  music,  and 
they  learn,  and  learn  to  speak,  both  English  and  French. 
But  they  are  not  treated  to  the  more  solid  parts  of  learning 
to  an  equal  degree  with  the  American  college  girl.  A  few 
of  the  German  universities  now  are  partially  open  to  women, 
but  I  have  known  German  professors  contemptuously  to 
refuse  the  application  of  young  women  to  enter  their  lecture- 
rooms.  "  Our  lectures  are  for  men,"  were  their  words,  as 
they  turned  them  away.  There  is  the  beginning  of  better 
things  in  Germany,  but  any  such  intellectual  activity  as  we 
are  familiar  with  in  women's  clubs  in  our  great  cities  is  not 
as  yet  found  here. 

The  present  Kaiser  uttered  his  preference  in  saying  that 
woman's  sphere  should  be  "  Kiiche,  Kinder,  Kirche,"  — 
a  very  important  sphere,  no  doubt.  The  Empress's  de- 
votion to  the  church  is  well  known,  and  she  is  the  mother 
of  seven  children,  the  youngest  of  whom  is  a  daughter. 
The  Emperor,  however,  was  disappointed  that  the  line  of 
boys  was  broken,  as  he  wanted  twelve  sons  to  command 
twelve  regiments  !  It  is  quite  impossible  in  a  few  words  to 
describe  what  educated  young  American  women  feel  in  the 
atmosphere  of  a  German  university  and  in  German  society. 
They  are  more  than  ever  grateful  for  the  ideas  prevailing 
and  the  opportunities  opened  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Atlantic. 

It  seems  to  Americans  looking  at  the  peasant  women 
carrying  their  huge  bundles  and  heavy  baskets,  while  the 


FAREWELL    TO    GERMANY.  I J I 

men  walk  unburdened  by  their  side,  that  true  honor,  which 
should  be  allied  with  helpful  courtesy,  is  not  here  granted 
to  women  of  the  humble  class.  I  know  that  the  terrible 
wars  of  the  past  threw  upon  women  the  necessity  of  tilling 
the  fields,  and  I  am  told  that  the  peasant  women  to-day  do 
not  feel  degraded  by  being  made  to  do  the  work  of  beasts 
of  burden.  The  time  has  come,  however,  for  a  change. 
German  public  sentiment  ought  not  to  approve  what  is 
witnessed  every  day,  —  sons  and  husbands  loading  the  backs 
of  their  old  mothers  and  wives  with  immense  burdens,  which 
the  men  do  not  share  and  would  be  ashamed  to  carry. 
Germany  worships  force,  man  represents  physical  strength, 
and  are  not  the  strong  commanded  to  bear  the  burdens 
of  the  weak? 

I  have  been  deeply  interested  in  the  church-life  of 
Germany,  if  that  can  be  called  life  which,  to  those  familiar 
with  American  Christianity,  appears  often  as  slow  as  the 
singing  of  a  German  hymn.  But  there  is  life  here  in  the 
great  established  churches,  and  in  the  non-established. 
Religion  is  faithfully  taught,  officially  taught,  and  taught  in 
the  public  schools  as  geography  and  mathematics  are  taught. 
Religion  is  a  part  of  the  national  regime.  It  is  closely 
allied  with  the  state.  But  this  is  not  an  element  of  real 
strength.  The  churches  play  a  much  less  important  part  in 
German  life  than  in  ours.  So  far  as  I  can  discover,  the 
church  has  no  social  part  to  play  in  Germany.  The  chil- 
dren are  baptized,  well  instructed  in  the  fundamentals  of 
religion,  and  "confirmed."  Much  is  made  of  the  church 
holy  days,  but  comparatively  little  of  Sunday.  Church  at- 
tendance, especially  on  the  part  of  men,  is  very -limited  and 
infrequent.  With  a  membership  of  nineteen  hundred,  the 
Reformed  church  in  Gottingen  gathers  an  audience  averag- 
ing perhaps  two  hundred.  The  sense  of  individual  respon- 
sibility, of  which  we  make  so  much  in  America,  and  to  which 
we  appeal  in  the  Christian  life,  is  not  so  keen  and  potent  in 
German  Christendom.  The  fundamental  and  all-pervading 
trouble  here,  in  every  department  of  life,  is  that  the  people 


172  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

are  governed.  They  wait  for  those  who  are  placed  over 
them,  and   depend  on  having  things  done   for  them. 

I  have  had  fairly  good  opportunities  of  knowing  some- 
thing of  the  German  pulpit,  having  listened  to  German 
preaching  every  Sunday  that  I  have  spent  here,  excepting 
two  Sundays,  when  I  preached  myself.  I  have  also  read  a 
number  of  German  sermons  of  the  higher  order.     Great 

l 

Britain,  France,  and  America  have  some  things  to  teach  the 
German  pulpit.  One  of  its  faults  is  monotony.  Another  is 
a  lack  of  fresh,  vital  material  in  discourses.  There  is  a 
faithful  treading  of  the  old  round  of  evangelical  thought, 
and  from  this  round  there  are  infrequent  departures. 
The  Lutheran  church  is  too  stereotyped.  The  pulpit 
does  not  get  a  strong  hold  of  the  life  of  to-day.  The 
government  instructs  the  ministers  not  to  meddle  with 
politics,  but  to  attend  strictly  to  religion,  which  means  that 
religious  matters  touching  the  great  life  of  the  present  gen- 
eration are  largely  excluded.  The  proportion  of  men  at- 
tending church  is  small.  One  who  has  listened  in  his  youth 
to  the  usual  round  of  pulpit  instruction,  would  very  likely 
expect  in  his  middle  life  to  hear  about  the  same  things 
repeated.  Manuscripts  are  not  used  in  the  German  pulpit, 
and  this  is  more  of  a  loss  than  a  gain.  If  the  preachers  had 
the  habit  of  writing  elaborately,  they  would  put  more  fresh 
thought  into  their  discourses,  and  make  them  better  worth 
hearing.  Speaking  without  writing  and  without  notes,  they 
are  apt  to  touch  the  surface  of  things  and  to  repeat  ideas 
most  familiar  to  them  and  to  their  hearers.  The  best  ser- 
mons of  England  and  America  are  either  written  or  are 
delivered  by  men  who  have  had  a  long  and  careful  training 
in  writing  sermons.  Such  preaching  one  does  not  hear  or 
expect  to  hear  in  Germany.  This  grand  old  land  of  Luther 
needs  many  John  Wesleys.  It  needs,  too,  a  missionary 
revival.     It  needs  to  be  shaken  out  of  its  old-time  ruts. 

The  elements  wherein  America  and  England  are,  as  I 
think,  superior  to  Germany  have  come  directly  or  indirectly 
from  Puritanism,  by  which  I  mean  the  grand  spiritual  dis- 


FAREWELL    TO    GERMANY.  1 73 

cipline  which  has  blessed  English-speaking  peoples  for  the 
last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Puritanism  has  dethroned 
kings,  or  taken  from  them  all  but  the  semblance  of  power ; 
has  developed  personal  responsibility,  and  hence  manhood 
and  womanhood  ;  has  exalted  the  individual  above  the  state, 
and  has  inspired,  as  nothing  else,  the  love  of  universal 
humanity.  We  go  away  from  Germany  with  kindly  and 
grateful  feelings  toward  her  people,  with  reverence  for  her 
greatness,  with  admiration  of  her  scholarship,  with  confi- 
dence in  her  future ;  but  we  sing  of  America,  in  words  that 
are  not  yet  fully  suited  to  the  German  spirit,  — 

"  Long  may  our  land  be  bright 
With  freedom's  holy  light; 
Protect  us  by  thy  might, 
Great  God,  our  King!  " 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OLD    ENGLAND. 

'THE  greatest  event  of  our  voyage  was  the  sight  of  a  rare 
-*■  phenomenon,  which  Captain  Thalenhorst  said  he  had 
not  seen  before  for  years.  It  was  a  gigantic  waterspout, 
reaching  to  the  clouds.  At  first  we  saw  on  the  surface  of 
the  sea,  perhaps  a  mile  away,  what  looked  like  a  whirling 
pillar  of  steam.  From  the  dark  sky  above  there  reached 
down  a  strange,  snake-like  cloud-finger,  which  may  have 
been  half  a  mile  in  length.  As  the  ship  drew  nearer,  we 
saw  that  this  cloud  in  the  heavens  was  connected  with  the 
phenomenon  on  the  sea.  Had  we  struck  it  and  the  whirl- 
ing vortex  thus  been  broken,  an  immense  quantity  of  water 
would  have  deluged  our  ship.  A  small  vessel  in  a  huge 
waterspout  would  have  had  no  chance  of  escaping  wreck. 
Three  other  smaller  waterspouts  came  into  view.  The  first 
and  greatest  soon  disappeared,  doing  no  damage  and  be- 
coming only  a  strange  memory.  It  reminded  me  of  the 
clouds  of  popular  delusion  born  of  whirling  and  blind  fury 
which  sometimes  overhang  and  threaten  a  nation's  life  and 
honor.  God  grant  that  the  American  ship  of  state  may  not 
be  overwhelmed  in  any  whirling  cataract  of  popular  igno- 
rance and  prejudice  ! 

I  never  have  seen  a  finer  morning  rise  on  the  world  of 
waters  than  dawned  upon  us  as  our  ship  passed  between 
the  chalky  cliffs  of  Dover  and  the  shores  of  France.  Our 
hearts  went  out  to  Mother  England,  and  we  shared  in  the 
Englishman's  pride  as  we  looked  on  this  precious  island 
jewel  set  in  the  circlet  of  the  northern  seas.  At  South- 
ampton we  were  taken  up  to  the  new  docks,  where  we 


OLD  ENGLAND.  1 75 

found  three  friends  waving  us  welcome.  After  the  ordeal 
of  bidding  good-by  to  our  four  children,  with  no  expecta- 
tion of  seeing  them  again  until  the  world  had  been  com- 
passed, we  saw  the  good  ship  bear  them  from  our  sight 
toward  the  American  shores.  The  custom-house  has  no 
great  terrors  in  England,  and  we  were  soon  driving  under 
the  Norman  arch  of  the  Bar  Gate,  for  more  than  eight 
centuries  the  north  portal  of  Southampton.  Before  reach- 
ing the  station,  we  had  another  fine  view  of  the  harbor, 
which  has  become  an  important  entrance  to  England. 

Southampton  awakens  memories  of  many  ancient  voyages. 
From  its  harbor  Richard  of  the  Lion  Heart  and  his  mail- 
clad  crusaders  sailed  for  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Land. 
This  is  the  port  from  which  brave  Henry  V.  and  his  arch- 
ers set  out  for  the  fateful  fight  of  Agincourt.  And  here  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  found  the  "Mayflower"  and  the  "Speed- 
well," and  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  they  went,  but 
carrying  in  their  brave  hearts  the  future  of  America.  If  one 
of  their  ships  had  not  proved  unseaworthy,  compelling  them 
to  sail  to  Plymouth,  and  to  crowd  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  the  coming  nation  into  one  little  ship,  they  might  have 
given  another  name  than  Plymouth  to  the  community  which 
they  planted  on  the  wild  New  England  shore. 

I  found  my  old  enthusiasm  for  England  returning  as  we 
were  whirled  along,  without  a  single  stop,  through  Win- 
chester, with  its  great  cathedral ;  by  Aldershot,  with  its 
busy  encampment  of  soldiers,  toward  London,  the  great 
commercial  heart  of  the  world,  —  London,  that  stirs  my 
imagination  on  this  my  seventh  visit  as  deeply  as  at  the 
first.  What  men  have  lived  and  wrought  here  by  the  thou- 
sand-masted Thames  !  It  is  the  city  that  reaches  back  to 
Roman  times,  to  the  days  of  Caesar  and  his  imperial  suc- 
cessors. It  is  the  city  of  William  the  Conqueror  and  of 
Elizabeth,  the  city  of  Shakespeare,  Raleigh,  and  Milton,  of 
Bacon  and  Cromwell,  of  Addison  and  Johnson,  of  Carlyle 
and  Browning,  Dickens  and  Macaulay,  of  Wellington,  Pitt, 
Gladstone,  of  Wilberforce    and    Shaftesbury  and    General 


1/6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Booth.  It  is  the  city  of  immeasurable  wealth  and  immeasur- 
able poverty.  It  is  the  city  in  whose  Westminster  Abbey 
you  feel  as  nowhere  else  the  glory  and  solidarity  of  English- 
speaking  nations,  but  in  whose  darkest  haunts  of  poverty 
and  distress  you  feel  as  nowhere  else  the  weight  of  woe 
which  bears  down  one-tenth  of  the  population  in  this  nine- 
teenth century  of  Christian  humanity.  Within  two  hours 
after  my  arrival  I  saw  more  evidences  of  suffering  than  I 
had  seen  during  all  my  months  in  Germany,  —  ragged  men 
following  the  cab  and  reaching  out  their  hands  for  a  few 
pennies  before  the  opening  and  shutting  of  the  cab  door ; 
others  hurrying  up  to  the  vehicle,  hoping  to  take  some 
part  in  the  removal  of  the  luggage.  These  men  are  our 
own  near  kin,  and  one's  heart  goes  out  to  them  with  a  pity 
which  Italian  beggars  rarely  call  forth. 

England  was  bright  with  sunshine  until  we  reached  Lon- 
don. And  here  the  sun  is  visible,  a  red  ball  of  fire  in  the 
smoky  air,  shorn  of  his  redundant  beams.  There  is  no 
such  scrupulous  cleanliness  in  the  English  capital  as  one 
finds  in  Paris  and  Berlin,  nor  is  there  that  comparative 
unity  —  or  shall  I  say  orderliness  —  in  architecture,  which 
is  possible  in  the  streets  of  European  cities,  where  the 
initiative  and  direction  come  from  above.  In  London  we 
have  a  glaring  exhibition  of  that  individualism  which  is 
characteristic  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  which  goes  with 
personal  freedom,  and  which  in  a  commercial  people  looks 
to  so-called  practical  ends  and  cares  little  for  symmetry 
and  beauty.  I  love  London,  but  the  modern  city  seems 
uglier  as  well  as  greater  on  every  visit,  and  this  is  especially 
noticeable  when  one  comes  to  England  from  the  Continent. 
I  understand  now  why  Taine  and  the  other  French  writers 
have  been  so  impressed  with  the  gloom  and  unloveliness  of 
London.  This  is  the  city  of  Colman's  mustard,  Venus  soap, 
and  Stephens's  ink,  and  of  unlimited  advertisements.  I 
have  not  yet  seen  the  idol  temples  of  India,  but  probably 
next  to  them  in  barbarous  ugliness  are  the  London  omni- 
buses, covered  all  over  with  colossal,  flaring  announcements 


OLD  ENGLAND.  Iff 

of  things  to  see  and  things  to  sell.  But  the  omnibus  is  a 
great  and  useful  friend,  and  there  's  a  hideous  grandeur 
about  long  lines  of  these  huge,  clumsy  vehicles,  filled  and 
covered  with  passengers,  lumbering  steadily  up  and  down 
High  Holborn  and  Oxford  streets. 

We  soon  found  lodgings  near  the  British  Museum,  and 
have  been  the  envy  of  our  friends,  who  are  living  in  such 
great  hostelries  as  the  Hotel  Royal  and  the  Hotel  Cecil. 
By  the  way,  this  latter  hotel,  on  the  Thames  embankment, 
has  recently  been  completed,  and  is  almost  as  splendid  as 
anything  of  the  kind  to  be  seen  in  New  York.  The  bril- 
liant Indian  dining-room  is  worth  a  visit,  and  yesterday,  as 
we  lunched  there,  we  looked  out  on  one  of  the  most  im- 
pressive scenes  in  Europe.  It  included  the  Parliament 
Houses,  the  long,  broad  sweep  of  the  Thames  under  three 
or  four  bridges,  the  beautiful  gardens  which  once  bordered 
the  palaces  of  great  English  nobles,  and  the  ever-interesting 
Cleopatra's  Needle.  This  Egyptian  obelisk  has  made  a 
deep,  though  rather  confused  impression  on  the  minds  of 
cabmen,  one  of  whom,  an  Irishman,  said  to  an  American 
lady :  "  This  is  St.  Patrick's  needle,  dug  from  the  Thames 
and  erected  up  here  in  me  own  time.  It  is  covered  with 
inscriptions  which  no  man  can  read,  because  they  are  written 
in  the  Latin  language  !  " 

Popular  education  has  reached  further  in  Germany  than 
in  England.  The  servant  girl  here,  who  brings  up  our 
coals  and  coffee,  and  who  has  lived  all  her  life  in  Cam- 
bridge, informed  us  that  she  had  cousins  in  America.  I 
asked  her  where.  "  In  Kane  County."  I  told  her  that 
that  was  not  very  far  from  where  I  lived,  in  Chicago. 
And  then  came  from  her  a  question  which  should  bring 
more  shame  to  England  than  it  brought  to  my  municipal 
pride.     She  asked,  "  Is  Chicago  in  America  ?  " 

Our  ten  days  in  England  were  most  of  them  filled  with 
sunshine.  We  purchased  our  India  outfit ;  I  secured  the 
copying  of  my  lectures  in  most  satisfactory  shape,  and  we 
took  some  fresh  observations  of  English  life,  usually  from 

12 


178  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

a  semi-German  standpoint.     Soldiers  seemed  to  us  scarce, 
and  their  costumes,  especially  their  caps,  less  sensible  and 
becoming  than  those  of  the  Kaiser's  army.     The  English 
tradesman  is  much  more  prompt   than  the  German,  and, 
though  I  am  fond  of  English  cooking  for  a  time,  I  know  a 
little  restaurant    in  Gottingen  where  you  can  get  a  better 
steak  than  in  all  London.     Of  course  we  found  food  dearer 
and  clothes  cheaper  than  in  America.     We  saw  everywhere 
evidences  that  England  is  becoming  sensitive  to  German 
competition.     We  heard  something  of  agricultural  distress 
in  Great  Britain ;  but  the  chief  distress  is  that  of  the  sturdy 
English  conscience  over  the  atrocious,  unspeakable,  and  — 
some  of  them,  as  Lord  Rosebery  has  told  us  —  unreadable 
and  unprintable  cruelties  authorized  by  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment.    Of  that  government  Great  Britain  heretofore    has 
been   the    main    support ;    but    all    good    Englishmen    are 
practically  united    to-day  in  a  holy  desire  to  be  unchained 
from  that    loathsome   body  of  death   and  pollution.     The 
mental  and  moral  delirium  tremens  of  a  few  journals,  Eng- 
lish and  American,  counts  for  nothing.     A  mighty  breath 
of  the  highest  Americanism  swept  over  the  great  Armenian 
meeting  which  I  attended,  when  Reverend  Dr.  Clifford,  the 
eminent  Baptist    preacher,  claimed  that   a  concert  of  the 
peoples  should  take  the  place  of  the  concert  of  the  powers  ; 
a  rousing  cheer  went  up  when  he  exclaimed  that  to  allow  the 
destinies  of  Europe  at  this  time  to  be  controlled  by  half  a 
dozen  men  was  barbarism.     I  have  seen  one  ray  of  humor  in 
this  tremendous  and  solemn  agitation,  —  the  announcement 
which  I  read  of  a  notice  given  by  an  English  clergyman  that 
two  meetings  in  behalf  of  the  Armenians  would  be  held  in 
his  church,  and   that  "  a  collection  would  be  taken  up  for 
the  sufferers  at  both  these  services."     It  seemed  to  me  to 
be   as   glorious  now  as  in  John  Milton's  time  to  behold  a 
noble  and  puissant  nation  rousing  herself  from  slumber  and 
shaking  her  invincible   locks.     At  this   demonstration  the 
most  unsparing   denunciation    of  England's  land-grabbing 
policy,  the  Cyprus  convention,  and  the  miserable  support 


OLD   ENGLAND.  1 79 

to  the  Turkish  tyranny  pledged  by  Lord  Beaconsfield,  were 
vigorously  applauded.  That  England  ought  to  give  up 
Cyprus,  the  price  of  oceans  of  Christian  blood,  was  the 
general  sense  of  this  meeting.  It  is  refreshing  to  know 
that  private  persons  of  distinction  have  sent  back  their 
decorations  to  the  Great  Assassin  who  gave  them.  The 
policy  of  unselfishness  on  England's  part  was  urged  by  all 
the  speakers.  And  I  said  to  myself  and  to  others,  "  If  this  is 
England,  then  it  is  glorious  to  be  an  Englishman."  I  am 
sure  that  the  hearts  of  Americans  have  not  for  a  twelve- 
month, perhaps  not  in  this  generation,  been  brought  so 
close  to  the  mother-island  as  during  the  progress  of  the 
present  agitation.  If  it  should  be  necessary,  which  God 
forbid,  that  England  should  raise  her  strong  right  arm  in 
battle  to  protect  outraged  Armenia,  every  Christian  heart 
in  America  will  pray  for  her  speedy  and  swift  success. 
Such  prayers  would  greatly  help  the  moral  and  political 
alliance  of  the  English-speaking  nations,  whose  freedom, 
devotion  to  the  Christian  gospel,  and  powerful  civilization 
are  the  main  hope  for  mankind.  If  the  war-ships  must 
ever  open  fire  on  the  treacherous  tyrant  of  Constantinople, 
I,  for  one,  should  be  glad,  if  above  the  smoke  and  thunder 
of  the  cannon  were  to  be  seen  not  only  the  red-cross  flag 
of  England,  but  also  the  stars  and  stripes  of  the  great 
western  Republic.  Oh  that  the  better  England  and  the 
true  America  might  find  each  other  out !  There  is  an 
England  that  every  righteous  man  should  be  willing  to  die 
for.  It  is  said  that  a  revolution  would  occur  in  Bavaria  if 
the  price  of  beer  were  unduly  raised.  But  England  is  a 
country  where  a  political  revolution  is  possible,  not  on 
account  of  the  suffering  of  her  own  people,  but  by  reason 
of  the  oppressions  inflicted  on  hapless  Armenia. 

When  in  London  I  always  make  at  least  one  visit  to  the 
National  Gallery,  and  this  year  I  found  my  way  also  to  the 
new  national  portrait  gallery,  where  one  may  look  into  the 
faces  of  the  renowned  men  and  women  of  Great  Britain. 
Nor  did  I  neglect  my  usual  visit  to  Westminster  Abbey,  nor 


l8o  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

to  that  part  of  it  which  Mr.  Beecher  deemed  "  the  most 
impressive  place  in  the  world,"  the  Jerusalem  Chamber. 
Here  the  crown  jewels  are  brought  twenty-four  hours  before 
every  English  sovereign's  coronation,  and  here  the  bodies 
of  the  monarchs  lie  in  state  before  their  burial.  That  heavy 
table  is  made  of  wood  from  the  Spanish  Armada,  and  the 
cedar  which  panels  the  room  was  brought  from  Mount 
Lebanon  to  decorate  it  at  the  time  of  the  marriage  of 
Charles  I.  Here  assembled  the  men  who  translated  our 
Bible  in  King  James's  time,  and  the  English  committee  who 
helped  revise  the  translation  in  the  Victorian  age  ;  and  here, 
for  five  years,  sat  the  Puritan  divines  who  gave  us  the 
Westminster  Confession  and  Catechism,  —  grand  men,  in 
the  days  of  the  Long  Parliament,  who  did  for  freedom  and 
religion  a  service  that  is  ever  memorable. 

Dr.  George  F.  Pentecost,  for  whom  I  preached  on 
Sunday  morning,  delivered  a  sermon  two  weeks  ago,  in 
which  he  strongly  advocated  an  Anglo-American  Alliance. 
I  think  that  Dr.  Pentecost's  heart  is  in  America.  And  it 
would  be  a  great  reinforcement  to  the  Christian  life  of  one 
of  our  chief  American  cities  to  secure  the  services  of  this 
stalwart  and  large-hearted  preacher.  I  ought  to  modify  the 
statement  of  Dr.  Pentecost's  yearning  for  America  by  say- 
ing that  he  thinks  and  dreams  much  of  India,  where  he  had 
expected  to  spend  the  coming  winter  till  his  plans  were 
altered  by  his  failure  to  secure  for  the  Marylebone  Presby- 
terian Church  the  pulpit  supply  that  he  had  in  mind.  At 
his  dinner-table  and  in  his  parlor,  which  is  decorated  with 
objects  of  interest  from  India,  I  had  much  profitable  talk 
with  him  about  Christian  work  in  the  great  Hindu  cities. 

Sunday  evening  I  lectured  in  Browning  Hall  for  the  Rev- 
erend F.  Herbert  Stead's  Social  Settlement.  This  is  a  new 
Christian  movement  in  South  London  among  the  poorest 
non-criminal  class.  The  work  has  a  score  of  useful 
branches ;  and  the  members  of  the  Settlement,  with  whom 
we  supped  at  the  house  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stead,  we  found  to 
be  as  bright-minded  and  happy-hearted  friends  of  humanity 


OLD  ENGLAND.  i8l 

as  one  often  sees.  Mr.  Stead,  who  is  the  very  genius  of 
Christian  altruism,  won  my  heart  several  years  ago,  and  it 
was  delightful  to  render  even  a  slight  service  to  his  work 
and  to  listen  to  his  penetrating  and  fair-minded  comments 
on  men  and  things.  He  is  a  loyal  and  hopeful  friend  of 
America,  and  has  started  a  movement  to  make  the  Fourth 
of  July  a  common  holiday  for  English-speaking  people,  a 
festival  in  which  they  shall  remember  their  unity  rather  than 
their  divisions.  One  of  Mr.  Stead's  assistants,  Tom  Bryan, 
a  college  man  and  a  hosier,  is  busily  fighting  in  a  diphtheria 
crusade  for  his  people,  who  are  dying  twenty  times  as  fast 
from  that  scourge  as  they  would  if  the  sanitary  arrangements 
of  their  houses  were  equally  propitious  with  those  of  Lon- 
doners generally.  The  Tory  papers  are  denouncing  him 
as  a  "ranting  radical,"  but  he  is  in  truth  a  brave,  good- 
humored,  and  very  practical  enemy  of  disease  and  vice. 

Americans  will  do  well  to  find  out  Browning  Hall.  It  was 
formerly  a  Congregational  church,  in  which  the  great  poet 
was  christened,  and  of  which  his  parents  were  members. 
He  worshipped  here  almost  up  to  the  time  when  he  wrote 
"  Paracelsus."  The  Browning  pew  was  in  the  gallery,  and 
some  of  the  richer  families  who  had  their  seats  in  the  body 
of  the  house  sneeringly  complained  of  the  fuss  made  over 
the  Brownings,  who  only  sat  upstairs  !  This  whole  region 
has  been  changed  of  late  years  so  that  it  is  said  now  to  be 
absolutely  the  poorest  quarter  of  London.  But  it  gave  me 
a  new  feeling  of  the  vigor  of  the  English  race  when  I  saw 
these  workingmen  listening  appreciatively  to  the  best  which 
I  had  to  offer,  and  I  gave  them  an  address  which  I  had 
found  serviceable  in  American  universities. 

I  have  had  a  golden  day  in  Oxford,  visiting  with  Pro- 
fessor J.  Estlin  Carpenter  of  Manchester  Free  College,  Pro- 
fessor Max  Mtiller,  and  Principal  Fairbairn  of  Mansfield 
College.  I  was  sorry  to  learn  that  Doctor  Fairbairn  had 
given  up  his  plan  for  a  volume  on  Comparative  Religion  for 
the  International  Theological  Library.  Still,  he  hopes  later 
to  prepare  a  more  elaborate  work  on  the  same  important 


1 82  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

theme.  Doctor  Fairbairn  is  one  of  the  foremost  minds  of 
Great  Britain,  and  his  services  to  theological  scholarship 
have  been  large.  What  an  admirable  lecturer  Principal 
Fairbairn  would  be  before  the  educated  minds  of  the 
Orient  ! 

Professor  Carpenter  showed  me  Manchester  New  College, 
in  which  he  is  the  leading  instructor.  This  Unitarian  foun- 
dation in  Oxford  seems  to  have  been  accepted  without  much 
pious  grumbling.  Professor  Carpenter  is  far  from  being  a 
destructive  radical.  His  accurate  and  profound  scholar- 
ship is  joined  to  a  sympathetic  and  vigorous  religious  nature 
which  puts  him  into  spiritual  accord  with  a  large  variety  of 
earnest  souls.  I  have  rarely  met  so  manly  and  attractive 
a  personality.  He  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  best  type  of 
an  Englishman,  and  such  men  I  find  very  friendly  to  what 
is  highest  in  America.  The  library  of  Manchester  College 
is  worthy  of  Oxford  on  account  of  its  beauty  ;  and  so  is  the 
chapel,  with  its  windows  designed  by  Burne  Jones  and  exe- 
cuted by  the  late  William  Morris.  Professor  Carpenter's 
house  is  one  of  those  English  homes,  embowered  in  roses, 
which  tempt  many  an  American  city  pastor  or  professor  to 
break  the  tenth  commandment ! 

Professor  and  Mrs.  Max  Muller  were  as  charming  and 
gracious  as  I  found  them  to  be  on  my  first  visit  to  them, 
last  summer.  They  had  invited  Professor  and  Mrs.  Car- 
penter to  meet  me  at  luncheon,  and  the  Indian  talk  was  of 
rare  interest.  Max  Muller  is  a  scholar  on  whom  stars 
have  been  freely  showered.  He  was  recently  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Queen's  Privy  Council,  and  is  now  a  Right  Hon- 
orable. As  Dean  of  the  foreign  section  of  the  French 
Academy,  he  was  invited  to  Paris  to  meet  the  Czar.  "  I 
could  not  go,"  he  said.  "  It  was  only  an  emperor  !  "  They 
were  expecting  to  see  the  next  day  the  brother  of  the  King 
of  Siam.  Max  Muller  does  not  like  to  travel.  Last  sum- 
mer I  carried  him  invitations  to  go  to  America  and  to 
India.  "  Oh,  no,"  he  said  ;  "  India  and  America  come  to 
me  !  "     He  greatly  liked  the  gentle  Dharmapala,  who  has 


a  Jff^pWpPJJIF^  *y" '    M^-  *\ 


P 

Q 

o 


a 


OLD  ENGLAND.  1 83 

just  paid  him  a  visit.  As  he  took  our  Buddhist  friend  to 
the  station,  a  lot  of  boys  gathered  around,  attracted  by 
Dharmapala's  Oriental  clothing.  He  stopped  and  said  to 
the  boys,  "  I  would  like  to  tell  you  a  story,"  and  they 
eagerly  listened  to  an  Eastern  tale  told  by  this  son  of  Cey- 
lon's Isle.  And  then  Dharmapala  said,  "I  want  you  all  to 
make  me  a  promise.  It  is  this,  —  never  to  kill  a  fly."  And 
most  of  the  boys  promised  ! 

Wearing  his  weight  of  learning  like  a  flower,  never  op- 
pressive, full  of  wit  and  good  stories,  an  excellent  listener 
as  well  as  a  remarkable  talker,  with  a  wife  —  a  niece  of 
Charles  Kingsley  —  who  represents  all  that  is  finest  in  Eng- 
lish womanhood,  abounding  in  reminiscence  and  yet  keenly 
alive  to  the  passing  hour,  Max  Mtiller  is  one  of  the  most 
delightful  of  men.  In  my  first  visit  he  was  full  of  talk  about 
Lowell  and  Wendell  Holmes,  and  especially  about  Dean 
Stanley. 

"  I  am  the  only  layman,"  he  said,  "  who  ever  preached 
in  Westminster  Abbey.  Stanley  asked  me  many  times  to 
preach  for  him,  but  I  replied :  '  I  will  do  anything  for 
you,  except  to  break  the  law  ! '  Then  the  Dean  laid  the 
case  before  Lord  Chief  Justice  Coleridge,  who  gave  the 
opinion  that  the  Dean  had  a  legal  right  to  determine 
who  should  speak  in  the  Abbey ;  but  he  closed  his  letter 
by  saying :  '  While  I  do  not  doubt  the  legality  of  what 
you  propose,  I  have  said  no  word  in  favor  of  its  expedi- 
ency.' Whereupon  the  brave  Stanley  wrote  to  the  Lord 
Chief  Justice  :  '  I  did  not  seek  your  opinion  upon  its  ex- 
pediency, but  only  upon  its  legality  ! '  "  Professor  Max 
Miiller's  recently  published  musical  recollections  came  up 
before  us  at  the  table,  and  his  wife  assured  us  that  her  hus- 
band used  to  play  most  beautifully ;  but  she  confessed  that 
he  never  could  master  the  London  underground  railway. 
On  a  visit  to  George  Eliot  he  overshot  the  station  in  one 
direction,  then  in  another,  and  finally  took  a  cab. 

He  was  particularly  warm  in  his  recollections  of  Charles 
Kingsley.     After  Kingsley's  controversy  with   Newman,  in 


1 84  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

which,  as  Max  Muller  thought,  he  had  the  best  of  the  cause 
and  the  worst  of  the  argument,  he  lost  some  of  his  hold 
on  the  English  people,  regaining  it,  however,  after  his  death. 
His  publisher  offered  him  only  nine  hundred  pounds  for  the 
copyright  of  all  his  books.  Fortunately  Kingsley  was  in- 
duced to  refuse  the  offer,  and  his  wife  received  more  than 
that  amount  from  the  sale  of  his  works  the  first  year  after 
his  death. 

Professor  Muller  told  us  of  the  beautiful  Greek  girl  Zoe, 
who  used  to  come  to  his  thinly  attended  lectures ;  and  in  a 
few  days  the  lectures  became  so  popular  that  some  of  the 
young  gentlemen  were  compelled  to  stand,  so  great  was  the 
sudden  interest  in  Sanscrit  literature.  This  young  woman 
afterward  became  the  wife  of  the  Archbishop  of  York.  I 
was  kindly  shown  the  decorations  which  the  learned  profes- 
sor has  received  from  European  sovereigns,  which,  however, 
as  he  cannot  wear  them  in  England  without  asking  the 
Queen's  consent,  he  never  has  worn.  I  saw  a  large  portrait 
of  the  German  Emperor,  which  the  Kaiser  had  sent  to  him, 
and  also  a  copy  of  the  Emperor's  song  and  music  which 
that  most  accomplished  of  young  men  had  given  to  his 
Oxford  friend.  The  Kaiser  had  written  upon  it :  "A  Chip 
from  another  German  workshop." 

Professor  Muller  was  full  of  pleasant  reminiscences  of  his 
last  visit  to  Paris  in  October,  1895,  where  he  was  called  upon 
to  make  an  address  in  French  on  very  short  notice.  He 
appeared  to  envy  me  the  month  of  preparation  which  was 
given  my  inexperience  before  a  similar  ordeal  last  April. 

The  most  popular  of  German  lyric  poets  is  Wilhelm 
Muller,  the  father  of  Max  Muller;  and  when  I  told  the 
Oxford  professor  that  my  son  had  learned  to  recite  his 
father's  poem  of  "  The  Bell-founder  of  Breslau,"  he  was 
much  pleased,  as  he  also  was  to  hear  that  friends  in  Ger- 
many and  in  America  as  well  were  still  reading  with  pleasure 
his  early  book,  "  German  Love." 

"My  other  books,"  he  once  said,  "were  written  from  the 
head,  but  this  from  the  heart !  " 


OLD  ENGLAND.  185 

In  a  delightful  walk  which  I  had  with  Professor  J.  Estlin 
Carpenter,  we  passed  by  a  street  named  from  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Jowett,  Master  of  Balliol  College ;  and  this  reminds 
me  of  a  story  told  me  last  summer  by  Dean  Fremantle. 
Let  me  preface  it  by  saying  that  Max  Muller's  English  is 
pure,  idiomatic,  and  perfect,  and  is  uttered  with  such  clear- 
ness that  you  do  not  need,  as  with  some  Englishmen,  to 
ask  him  to  repeat.  Some  one  said  to  Jowett,  "  You  have 
seen  many  classes  of  Englishmen  in  your  lecture-room." 
"  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  I  am  like  old  Nestor ;  I  have  seen 
pass  before  me  several  generations  of  inarticulate-speaking 
men  !  "  The  Oxford  term  had  not  begun.  There  was  some 
talk  of  inviting  a  famous  Hindu  to  come  down  from  London 
and  deliver  a  lecture.  Professor  Carpenter  said,  "  Lectur- 
ing would  do  no  good  now,"  and  Max  Miiller  humorously 
added,  "  It  does  no  good  in  term  time." 

On  Max  Muller's  piano  lay  a  large  colored  poster,  which 
had  been  sent  him  from  California.  It  was  an  advertise- 
ment of  Dr.  A.'s  Cough  Medicine,  and  it  contained  a  gigantic 
head  of  Professor  Max  Miiller  !  The  enterprising  American 
probably  chose  the  most  benevolent  face  he  could  find,  and 
put  his  own  obscure  name  beneath  it  !  The  Oxford  profes- 
sor doubtless  got  as  much  pleasure  out  of  this  grotesque  evi- 
dence of  his  fame,  as  out  of  the  ample  honors  which  kings 
and  learned  societies  have  bestowed  upon  this  most  famous 
of  living  scholars.  Of  all  men  he  seems  to  be  the  most 
lenient  and  loving  student  of  non-Christian  religions,  while 
declaring  the  immeasurable  superiority  of  Christianity.  As 
I  bade  him  good-by,  I  said  :  "  I  may  not  be  able  to  reflect 
all  your  ideas  in  India,  but  I  hope  to  show  your  kindly  and 
charitable  spirit." 

The  next  day  we  saw  Cambridge,  where  the  term  had 
begun.  And  I  must  say  that  the  young  men,  so  stalwart, 
athletic,  well-groomed,  and  manly,  showed  to  good  advan- 
tage contrasted  with  the  mighty  beer-drinkers  whom  I  had 
seen  in  Gottingen.  My  motto  in  Oxford  was  that  chosen 
for   the  World's   Congress   Auxiliary :    "  Not   Things,   but 


1 86  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Men."  I  did  not  even  see  the  Indian  Institute,  the  centre 
of  Indian  studies  at  Oxford,  practically  founded  by  Sir 
Monier  Monier-Williams,  and  which  he  was  anxious  that 
I  should  visit.  But  our  motto  for  Cambridge  was  :  "  Not 
Men,  but  Things."  The  libraries,  chapels,  refectories,  por- 
traits, quadrangles,  towers,  and  those  lovely  lawns,  with 
lime-tree  avenues,  sloping  down  to  the  stone  and  oaken 
bridges  of  the  Cam,  charmed  us  into  that  enthusiasm  which 
makes  nearly  every  Cambridge  man  exultant  with  a  pride 
which  no  Oxford  fellow  can  put  down.  We  walked  the 
golden  acres  which  the  English  muses  have  most  loved. 
What  a  gap  would  be  made  in  our  libraries  of  British  song 
if  the  Cambridge  poets  were  taken  out  of  them,  —  Spenser 
and  Sidney,  Marlow  and  Milton,  Cowley  and  Coleridge, 
Ben  Jonson  and  Dryden,  Fletcher  and  Gray,  Byron,  Words- 
worth, and  Tennyson  !  And  think  of  the  Cambridge  states- 
men, —  Lord  Burleigh  and  Cromwell,  Pitt  and  Palmerston  ! 
Call  the  roll  of  her  reformers,  divines,  missionaries,  scholars, 
men  of  letters,  scientists  —  Erasmus,  Cranmer,  Latimer, 
Jeremy  Taylor,  Archbishop  Ussher,  Paley,  Henry  Martyn, 
John  Harvard,  Wilberforce,  Cudworth,  Bentley,  Porson, 
Parr,  Pepys,  Chesterfield,  Thackeray,  Bulwer,  Macaulay, 
Bacon,  Newton,   Isaac  Barrow,   Whewell,  Darwin  ! 

King's  College  Chapel,  built  by  the  "  royal  saint  "  Henry 
VI.,  of  which  we  had  great  expectations,  quite  surpassed  our 
dreams.  We  plucked  some  leaves  from  Milton's  mulberry- 
tree  in  Christ  College  garden,  saw  Erasmus's  tower  and 
several  rooms  of  famous  Cambridge  graduates,  and  looked 
at  many  portraits  and  busts  of  the  mighty  dead.  We 
were  directed  to  the  date  inscribed  on  one  of  the  col- 
leges by  the  celebrated  Latin  scholar,  Professor  Mayor,  the 
vegetarian  who  lived  for  a  long  time  on  twopence  a  day, 
whose  money  has  been  expended  in  gathering  one  of  the 
largest  private  libraries  in  the  world ;  and  we  saw  Hogarth's 
caricature  of  Dr.  Parr,  with  a  great  cloud  of  smoke  issuing 
from  his  mouth  as  he  sat  in  the  pulpit.  This  learned  veteran 
had  the  habit  of  smoking  in  church,  and  sometimes  would 


OLD  ENGLAND.  1 87 

ask  the  congregation  to  sing  a  hymn  over  again  that  he 
might  have  another  pipe.  Judged  by  this  standard,  the 
English  church  to-day  is  not  up  to  Parr  ! 

We  had  a  few  hours  in  Ely  before  returning  to  London. 
The  cathedral  is  its  sole  attraction.  It  is  the  longest  in 
England,  excepting  Winchester,  and  is  one  of  the  best 
pieces  of  Norman  architecture.  Other  styles  have  been 
added  to  it ;  and  the  Gothic  dome,  the  only  one  of  the 
sort  in  the  world,  fills  one  with  awe  as  he  looks  up  into 
the  mighty  vault.  On  the  following  day  we  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  contrasting  Ely  with  Canterbury.  The  great  cathe- 
dral, which  stands  near  the  site  of  the  cradle  of  British 
Christianity,  unlike  Ely  and  like  Winchester,  is  crowded 
with  history.  Here  the  Black  Prince  and  Henry  IV.  are 
buried.  Here  Becket  was  murdered,  and  here  was  built 
his  costly  shrine,  a  shrine  which  Henry  VIII.  plundered  of 
its  jewels,  one  of  which,  the  most  precious  ruby  in  the  world, 
he  made  into  a  thumb-ring  for  himself.  The  Puritan  icono- 
clasts show  up  to  advantage  beside  the  much-married  and 
plundering  Henry.  Dean  Farrar,  who  graciously  acted  as 
our  guide  through  the  deanery,  its  delightful  gardens,  and 
the  interesting  environments  of  the  cathedral,  is  making 
preparations  to  celebrate  next  summer  the  thirteen  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into 
England.  Twenty  thousand  pounds  are  to  be  expended  in 
repairing  the  historic  cathedral,  which,  by  the  way,  is  a 
museum  of  heraldry.  There  are  here  eight  hundred  coats 
of  arms.  Families  who  were  benefactors  of  the  cathedral 
had  the  privilege  of  having  their  escutcheons  carved  on  the 
sacred  walls.  They  were  also  granted  forty  days'  indul- 
gence. Dean  Farrar  expressed  humorously  his  regret  that 
he  could  not  accord  to  the  benefactors  of  to-day  a  similar 
privilege.  He  called  our  attention  to  the  history  of  archi- 
tecture as  embodied  in  this  noble  building  with  its  various 
styles.  We  were  deeply  interested  in  the  deanery,  which  is 
really  the  archbishop's  house  when  he  comes  to  Canterbury. 
Beneath  its  roof  King  William  III.  had  slept.    Here  the  great 


1 88  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Archbishop  Tillotson  lived  for  twenty-five  years.  We  saw 
the  portraits  of  all  the  deans.  Some  of  his  predecessors,  as 
Dean  Farrar  told  us,  in  the  days  of  royal  favoritism,  held 
two  bishoprics  besides  the  deanery.  When  the  revisers 
were  at  work  over  the  New  Testament,  it  was  proposed  to 
translate  the  word  which  has  been  rendered  penny,  where 
Jesus  said,  "  Show  me  a  penny,"  by  an  almost  perfect 
transcription  of  the  word  "  denarius,"  thus  making  a  new 
word,  "denary."  The  revisers,  however,  changed  their 
minds,  after  a  few  days,  when  some  one  suggested  that  the 
proposed  revision  might  embolden  every  canon  in  England 
to  say  to  his  bishop  or  to  the  prime  minister,  "  Give  me  a 
deanery  !  "     In  the  old  times  such  a  gift  was  worth  while. 

Probably  no  other  living  English  divine  has  been  read  so 
widely  as  Dean  Farrar.     Some  of  his  books  are  in  the  library 
of  nearly  every  American  minister,  and  a  translation  of  his 
"  Life  of  Christ  "  or  "  Life  of  St.  Paul  "  is  found,  according 
to  a  Russian  prince,  on  the  bookshelves  of  almost  every  in- 
telligent Russian  priest.     Dean  Farrar  is  about  publishing  a 
book  on  the    Bible.      "  I  am  afraid,"  he  said,  "  that  my 
views  will  give  you  a  great  shock."     He  is  deeply  interested 
in  India,  where  he  was  born,  and  of  which  a  former  viceroy 
was  his  dear  friend.     Nothing  in  his  library  interested  me 
more  than  a  photograph  he  showed  of  Phillips  Brooks  and 
himself.     He  thought  that  if  the  great  Boston  preacher  had 
refused  to  be  a  bishop  he  might  still  be  alive.     I  shall  carry 
with  me  through  life  a  beautiful  picture  of  Dean  Farrar,  with 
his    black    leggings,   small    clothes,   and   university  cap,   a 
bunch  of  keys  in  his  hand,  opening  for  us  many  a  door, 
climbing  the  steps  of  the  high  garden  wall,  pointing  out  the 
leading  architectural  features  of  the  great  cathedral,  and  at 
last  in  the  beautiful  evening  twilight  bidding  us  a  kindly 
good-by. 

We  parted  from  him  under  Christ  Church  Gate,  beneath 
which,  as  he  told  us,  Charles  V.,  Henry  VIIL,  and  Cardinal 
Wolsey  had  walked  together.  We  had  seen  St.  Martin's 
Church,  the  oldest  church  building  in  England,  and  in  its 


OLD  ENGLAND.  1 89 

churchyard  Dean  Alford's  tomb,  on  which  I  read,  with 
peculiar  emotion,  an  inscription  which  would  be  appropriate 
to  me,  resting  here  to-night :  "  The  inn  of  a  traveller  on 
his  way  to  Jerusalem." 

The  next  morning  we  left  the  hospitalities  of  "  The 
Rose,"  and  the  precincts  of  the  cathedral,  and  within  an 
hour  were  driving  along  the  sea-wall  of  Dover,  where  we 
looked  up  to  the  ancient  castle  and  saw  to  the  westward 
Shakespeare's  Cliff.  The  Seventy  minutes'  passage  across 
the  Channel  was  over  a  quiet  and  sun-kissed  sea.  It  was 
with  deep  affection  that  I  said  good- by  to  old  England,  and 
I  ask  my  readers  to  share  with  me  that  friendship  for  the 
better  England,  that  prayerful  hope  that  she  may  be  de- 
livered from  calamity  and  dishonor,  and  that  faith  in  her 
mighty,  beneficent  mission  with  which  I  now  set  my  face 
toward  her  great  Indian  Empire. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Lowell's  cathedral. 

A  S  we  crossed  the  Channel,  I  read  through  Lord  Rose- 
•^*  bery's  speech  given  the  night  before  in  Edinburgh, 
and  I  said  :  "  O  England  !  thy  problems  and  perils  are 
so  grave  that  all  Christian  hearts  must  pray  for  thee. 
Separated  though  thou  art  by  these  waters  from  the  great 
European  world,  thou  art  still  bound,  both  by  duty  and 
interest,  to  the  armed  and  the  suffering  nations.  God 
shield  thee  from  war ;  but  if  a  righteous  war  must  come, 
may  God  give  to  thy  delivering  arm  a  noble  victory  !  "  At 
Calais  we  experienced  the  wonder,  ever  new,  of  striking 
another  language  and  other  modes  of  life.  Sweeping  by 
Boulogne,  we  saw  the  tall  monument,  crowned  with  the 
statue  of  Napoleon,  marking  the  spot  where  the  Corsican 
Caesar  encamped  when  he  planned  another  conquest  of 
Britain.  In  a  few  hours  we  were  in  Paris,  and  found  the 
city  still  gay  with  the  profuse  and  artistic  decorations  with 
which  France  had  just  greeted  the  Czar.  The  Russian 
eagles  were  everywhere  close  to  the  shields  on  which  the 
letters  R.  F.  tell  all  the  world  that  France  is  a  republic. 
Amazing  were  the  festoons  of  white  lamps  on  the  Place  de 
la  Concorde  and  along  the  Champs  Elysees ;  and  how  the 
Japanese  spring-time,  with  its  white  and  pink  cherry-blos- 
soms, appeared  to  have  returned  in  the  flower-decorated 
autumn  trees  of  the  Rond  Point !  The  word  "  Pax"  was  in- 
scribed a  thousand  times  on  the  decorations.  "  Methinks 
she  doth  protest  too  much."  The  spirit  which  makes  for 
peace  is  not  ubiquitous  nor  omnipotent. 


LOWELL'S  CATHEDRAL.  191 

It  was  good  to  get  away  from  national  concerns  and  to 
find  real  peace  for  the  spirit  in  the  familiar  American 
Church,  of  which  Dr.  Thurber  is  the  pastor,  but  where  we 
heard  a  tender  and  beautiful  sermon  on  "  Seeing  God,"  by 
President  Francis  E.  Clark  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
movement.  A  union  meeting  of  all  the  Paris  societies  of 
Christian  Endeavor  greeted  him  in  the  afternoon.  It  is 
always  a  joy  to  come  into  touch  with  this  modest  and  de- 
voted man,  chosen  of  God  to  move  the  young  Christian 
life  of  the  world  and  to  help  make  ready  for  the  active, 
spiritual,  and  united  church  of  the  future.  Of  our  three 
secular  days  in  Paris,  two  were  spent  out  of  the  city,  and  I 
realized  a  dream  which  I  had  been  dreaming  for  twenty- 
five  years,  in  a  visit  to  Lowell's  Cathedral  in  Chartres,  two 
hours  from  Paris.  Before  I  came  abroad  in  1873,  I  had 
made  myself  familiar  with  the  now  famous  poem  inspired 
by  the  great  minster,  of  which  Napoleon  said,  "  How  ill  at 
ease  would  an  atheist  be  here  !  "  Lowell's  "  Cathedral  "  was 
my  constant  companion  on  my  first  being  abroad,  and  I 
found  it  sympathetic  with  many  moods.  It  contains  much 
moralizing,  and  is  full  of  high  eloquence.  But  it  was  only 
yesterday  that  the  way  seemed  open  for  a  visit  to 
Chartres. 

"A  pretty  burgh,  and  such  as  fancy  loves 
For  bygone  grandeurs.  .  .  . 
Its  once  grim  bulwarks,  tamed  to  lovers'  walks, 
Looked  down  unwatchful  on  the  sliding  Eure." 

The  hours  that  we  spent  in  and  about  the  cathedral, 
whose  massiveness  and  splendor  are  associated  with  a  his- 
tory which  reaches  back  to  pre-Christian  times,  were 
among  the  most  impressive  and  really  exciting  that  we 
have  known  in  Europe.  We  did  not  wonder  that  Lowell 
wrote,  — 

"  I,  who  to  Chartres  came  to  feed  my  eye, 
And  give  to  fancy  one  clear  holiday, 
Scarce  saw  the  minster,  for  the  thoughts  it  stirred, 
Buzzing  o'er  past  and  future  with  vain  quest." 


I Q2  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Our  thoughts,  too,  were  busy,  and  were  not  altogether 
cheerful,  for  reasons  which  I  will  indicate  at  once.  The 
great  church  is  built  to  the  glory  of  Our  Lady  of  Chartres, 
and  contains  a  miraculous  Virgin,  made  of  dark  wood,  often 
called  the  Black  .Virgin.  It  holds  also  a  miraculous  tunic 
or  veil,  and  in  the  spacious  crypt  is  a  copy  of  the  Druidical 
Virgin,  worshipped  in  a  heathen  sanctuary  here  before  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  We  spent  a  good  deal  of 
time  before  the  splendid  and  richly  decorated  shrine  of  the 
Virgin,  around  which  hundreds  of  golden  hearts,  the  offer- 
ings of  the  faithful,  are  suspended,  and  where  many  can- 
dles are  kept  constantly  burning.  Chartres  must  have  had 
a  revival  of  piety  since  Lowell's  first  visit  here.     He  says  : 

"Far  up  the  great  bells  wallowed  in  delight, 
Tossing  their  clangors  o'er  the  heedless  town, 
To  call  the  worshippers  who  never  came, 
Or  women  mostly,  in  loath  twos  and  threes." 

We  heard  the  great  bells  again  and  again,  but  the  town 
was  not  heedless.  A  thousand  worshippers  must  have  come 
during  the  afternoon,  and  a  constant  procession  passed  the 
shrine  of  the  Black  Virgin.  Men,  women,  and  children  in 
arms  kissed  the  stone  pillar  on  which  the  image  is  placed. 
According  to  the  official  guide-book,  sold  in  the  cathedral, 
"  forty  days'  indulgence  may  be  gained  by  kissing  the  pillar 
of  Notre  Dame  du  Pilier."  Scores  of  miracles  are  re- 
lated as  having  been  performed  by  Our  Lady  of  Chartres. 
She  is  declared  to  have  saved  France  from  paganism,  in  the 
tenth  century,  by  the  defeat  and  conversion  of  the  Norman 
Duke  Rollo,  and  from  Protestantism,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
by  the  defeat  of  the  Huguenots.  The  official  guide  says, 
"  Our  Lady  raises  to  life  dead  children,  brought  to  her  by 
their  mother."  In  the  devotions  offered  within  the  cathe- 
dral, I  strove  with  all  sympathy  to  believe  that  there  was 
present  the  spirit  of  true  worship,  and  I  do  not  doubt  the 
sincerity,  while  I  deplore  the  want  of  enlightenment.  God, 
who  sees  the  heart,  doubtless  brings  many  consolations  to 
those  who  kneel  at  this  shrine  which   His  hand,  as  I   have 


LOWELL'S  CATHEDRAL.  193 

come  to  believe,  never  erected.  But  I  have  written  enough 
to  show  why  the  visit  saddened  me,  although  I  was  not  un- 
familiar with  the  acts  of  worship  which  are  offered  to  the 
Virgin  Mother  of  Our  Lord.  It  seemed  to  me  that  they 
are  not  the  best  friends  of  the   human  soul   who,  to  use 

Lowell's  phrase, 

"  obscure 
With  painted  saints  and  paraphrase  of  God 
The  soul's  east  window  of  divine  surprise." 

What  filled  me  with  joy  in  the  cathedral  was  the  feeling 
that  this  glorious  monument  of  human  hands  is  in  its  en- 
tirety an  altar  of  religion,  and  an  offering,  notwithstanding 
all  superstitions,  to  Almighty  God.  Chartres  has  not  the 
perfect  symmetry  nor  the  stupendous  height  of  the  double- 
spired  Cologne ;  but  it  possesses  a  venerableness  in  which 
the  newly  finished  Christian  temple  on  the  Rhine  does  not 
share.  In  historical  associations  it  ranks  with  Winchester 
and  Canterbury.  English  kings  have  contributed  to  its 
glory,  and  Edward  III.  paid  his  devotions  at  this  shrine. 

"  Here  once  there  stood  a  homely  wooden  church, 
Which  slow  devotion  nobly  changed  to  this, 
That  echoes  vaguely  to  my  modern  steps. 
By  suffrage  universal  it  was  built, 
As  practised  then,  for  all  the  country  came 
From  far  as  Rouen  to  give  votes  for  God, 
Each  vote  a  block  of  stone  securely  laid, 
Obedient  to  the  master's  deep-mused  plan." 

It  is  claimed  that  all  the  French  kings  excepting  Louis 
XVI.  have  been  devoted  subjects  of  Our  Lady  of  Chartres. 
Clovis  received  instruction  from  her  bishop ;  the  early 
Carlovingian  monarchs  were  her  friends ;  St.  Louis  walked 
barefoot  to  her  altar ;  Louis  XL  divided  his  time  between 
Paris  and  Chartres  ;  Henry  of  Navarre  was  here  consecrated  ; 
Louis  XIV.  was  a  pilgrim  to  these  crypts ;  popes  have 
lowered  their  mitres  before  this  image  ;  St.  Bernard,  the 
mighty  Abbot  of  Clairvaux,  here  comforted  the  crusading 
knights  in  their  discouragement ;  the  steps  of  the  great 
Thomas  a  Becket  of  Canterbury  have  been  heard  among 

*3 


194  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

these  massive  pillars ;  converted  Huron  Indians  from  the 

forests  of  North  America  have  sent  their  offerings  to  this 

shrine,  which  Catholic  missionaries  have  made  famous  in 

China  and  Japan  and  on  the  tropic  shores  of  Ceylon. 

Mr.  Lowell  describes  himself  as  first  brought  face  to  face 

with  "  the   minster's  vast  repose  "  at  the  "  triple  northern 

port," 

"  Where  dedicated  shapes  of  saints,  and  kings, 
Stern  faces,  bleared  with  immemorial  watch, 
Looked  down  benignly  grave." 

We  entered  by  the  western  gate,  between  the  two  lofty 
towers,  high  up  around  whose  stony  perches  great  flocks  of 
birds  were  circling,  as  in  the  time  when  our  American  poet 
saw  in  them  an  image  of  us  moderns, 

"  Plastering  our  swallow-nests  on  the  awful  past, 
And  twittering  round  the  work  of  larger  men, 
As  we  had  builded  what  we  but  deface." 

To  me  it  is  always  a  great  moment  when  I  first  stand 
beneath  the  high-embowered  roof  of  a  vast  cathedral  aisle. 
And  Chartres  holds  its  own  in  any  company  of  Christian 
churches.  Mr.  Lowell  wonders  if  it  were  Faith  or  Fear 
which  built  thus  nobly.  And  he  also  asks  if  our  age,  which 
is  surely  not  one  of  cathedral-building,  has  achieved  any- 
thing as  worthy  as  this  miracle  in  stone,  which  men  were 
one  hundred  and  sixty  years  in  finishing.  Readers  of  his 
poem  will  recall  how  despondent  he  seems  in  some  of  his 
meditations.  Twenty-five  years  ago  the  wave  of  agnosticism 
was  at  its  height,  that  wave  which  has  since  subsided. 
Lowell,  though  "  the  born  disciple  of  an  elder  time  "  and 
never  losing  faith  in  God  and  prayer  and  immortality,  was 
yet  sympathetic  with  his  own  age,  and  cultured  agnosticism 
touched  his  harp  with  many  plaintive  melodies.  Later  in 
life  he  drew  closer  to  the  ancestral  faith,  but  even  in  this 
poem  the  spirit  of  doubt  never  really  triumphs.  Invincible 
hope  asserts  herself.  God  is  not  to  be  displaced.  We 
know  ourselves  by  knowing  Him.     The  soul  of  man  is  His 


LOWELL'S  CATHEDRAL.  195 

best  temple,  and  "  fairer  far  than  aught  by  artist  feigned  or 
pious  ardor  reared."  And  though  Mr.  Lowell  welcomes  the 
spirit  of  criticism  which  exposes  all  delusions,  though  he  sees 
in  true  science  the  essence  of  religion,  though  he  beholds 
the  downfall  of  ancient  superstitions,  "while  pale  gods  glance 
for  help  to  gods  as  pale,"  yet  man  can  never  be  permanently 
cheated  out  of  heaven.  The  Divine  comes  back  to  him. 
With  every  child  the  angel-peopled  paradise  returns.  The 
religion  of  self-sacrifice  is  enduring.  This  world  is  not 
made  for  mere  enjoyment.  Man  needs  and  will  get  hold 
of  the  Divine  consolation,  and  in  the  church  of  the  future 

"  The  Cross,  bold  type  of  shame  to  homage  turned, 
Of  an  unfinished  life  that  sways  the  world, 
Shall  tower,  as  sovereign  emblem,  over  all." 

Among  the  great  things  of  the  cathedral  are  the  spacious 
crypts,  the  most  extensive  that  I  have  ever  seen,  surpassing, 
I  think,  those  of  Canterbury.  A  large,  good-natured  bel- 
dame, a  believer  in  the  miraculous  powers  of  Our  Lady,  led 
us  through  subterranean  chapel  after  chapel.  One  of  these 
is  very  extensive,  and  from  the  ceiling  lighted  lamps  depend. 
In  Canterbury  we  were  shown  the  hooks  in  the  roof  to 
which  the  silver  lamps  were  once  attached  in  those  far-off 
days  of  which  Chaucer  sings,  when  pilgrims  journeyed  to  the 
British  shrine  as  they  now  journey  to  Chartres. 

The  screen  around  three  sides  of  the  great  choir  —  colossal, 
elaborate,  and  yet  delicate  sculptures,  representing  scenes  in 
the  life  of  Mary  and  of  our  Lord  —  is  the  greatest  piece  of 
stone-carving  in  interior  church  architecture  that  I  have 
ever  looked  at.  The  beautiful  wood-carvings  in  the  stalls 
of  King's  College  Chapel,  and  of  Ely  and  Canterbury 
cathedrals,  seem  child's  play  in  comparison.  But  to  me 
the  heavenliest  part  of  this  Gothic  wonder  is  the  beauty  of 
the  ancient  glass  windows,  before  one  of  which  pilgrims 
lighted  candles  in  the  twelfth  century.  There  are  more 
than  one  hundred  and  forty  windows,  letting  in  a  dim  re- 
ligious light.     But  it  is  light,  and  calls  our  thoughts  heaven- 


196  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

ward.  Before  the  art  of  printing  was  invented,  the 
thirty-eight  hundred  figures  in  this  beautiful  glass  and  the 
many  carved  images  within  and  without,  depicting  scenes  of 
Biblical,  legendary,  and  ecclesiastical  history,  formed  the 
people's  picturesque  and  magnificent  prayer-book.  Our 
poet  recovers  from  his  plaintive  mood,  as  the  heavenly 
light  falls  upon  him  through  these  painted  kings  and 
prophets. 

"  I  gaze  round  on  the  windows,  pride  of  France, 
Each  the  bright  gift  of  some  mechanic  guild, 
Who  loved  their  city,  and  thought  gold  well  spent, 
To  make  her  beautiful  with  piety  ; 
I  pause  transfigured  by  some  stripe  of  bloom, 
And  my  mind  throngs  with  shining  auguries, 
Circle  on  circle,  bright  as  seraphim, 
With  golden  trumpets,  silent,  that  await 
The  signal  to  blow  news  of  good  to  men." 

But,  after  all,  to  me  what  gives  a  perpetual  charm  to 
Lowell's  "  Cathedral "  is  its  picturesque  interpretation  of 
the  wonder,  fascination,  and  heavenward-climbing  spirit  of 
Gothic  architecture.  It  is  good  reading,  not  only  at 
Chartres,  but  before  and  within  many  of  the  chief  shrines  of 
Northern  Europe.  It  was  early  in  the  evening  when  we 
took  our  last  look  at  that  which  had  brought  us  thither. 
There  it  stood,  and  there  it  will  stand, 

"  Silent  and  gray  as  forest-leaguered  cliff. 
Left  inland  by  the  ocean's  slow  retreat." 

As  our  train  took  us  back  to  busy  and  brilliant  Paris,  per- 
haps the  centre  of  modern  civilization,  I  felt  that  the  spirit 
which  achieved  its  greatest  things  in  the  building  of  cathe- 
drals must  now  seek,  and  will  now  seek,  to  honor  God  best 
by  serving  men,  by  delivering  the  soul  from  ignorance  and 
the  life  from  brutalizing  poverty,  and  by  teaching  that  through 
brotherhood,  through  a  faith  which  works  by  love,  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  expanded  and  built  up  on  the  earth. 
France  is  full  of  hope  that  her  isolation  and  her  peril 
,  have  been  removed  or  lessened,  through  the  union  with 


LOWELL'S  CATHEDRAL.  197 

Russia,  which  has  been  made  more  real  and  apparent  by  the 
visit  of  the  Czar.  But  Europe  remains  an  armed  camp.  The 
Prince  of  Peace  would,  I  think,  be  far  more  honored  by 
the  cessation  of  European  hatreds  and  antagonisms  than  by 
the  building  of  a  hundred  cathedrals.  If  men  would  appro- 
priate the  real  spirit  of  Christ's  teachings,  they  should  throw 
down  their  rifles  and  snap  in  two  their  swords.  Christian 
nations,  so  called,  seem  to  feed  only  on  the  husks  of  religion. 
The  doctrine  of  God's  fatherhood  and  human  brotherhood, 
adopted  into  the  lives  of  men,  would  usher  in  the  common- 
wealth of  love. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

UNDER   ITALIAN   SKIES  —  TURIN,    MILAN,    FLORENCE. 

"\  1  7"E  left  the  French  capital  at  the  Lyons  station  by  the 
express  train  for  Turin.  It  was  with  regret  that  we 
said  good-by  to  a  city  that  has  always  been  kind  to  us. 
Shall  we  ever  see  Notre  Dame  and  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde again  ?  The  ride  through  France,  when  the  rain  was 
falling  and  the  skies  were  dark,  was  a  time  for  reflections 
rather  than  for  visions.  I  had  a  few  hours  of  sleep  before 
we  came  to  the  Italian  custom-house  at  Modane.  Then 
the  train  carried  us  through  the  Mont  Cenis  tunnel,  and  in 
half  an  hour  we  had  pierced  the  Alpine  barrier,  over  which 
Caesar  had  climbed  to  the  conquest  of  Gaul,  and  Hannibal 
and  Napoleon  to  the  conquest  of  Italy. 

It  is  twenty-three  years  since  I  had  my  first  view  of  one 
of  the  fairest  lands  the  traveller  ever  sees,  the  land  where 
nature  and  art  are  rich  with  untold  treasures,  and  where 
memory  consecrates  every  city  and  river  and  storied  plain. 
To  visit  Italy  is  the  scholar's  brightest  dream.  I  could  but 
think  how  many  of  our  own  countrymen  —  poets,  historians, 
statesmen  —  have  found  in  their  Italian  journeys  rich  food 
for  the  mind.  And  then,  who  does  not  remember  that  from 
Luther's  visit  to  Italy  sprung  the  reformation  of  Europe? 
No  other  Englishman  ever  was  better  fitted  to  find  full  en- 
joyment in  the  literary  and  other  treasures  of  Florence  and 
Rome  than  John  Milton,  and  we  proudly  recall  how  he  hur- 
ried back  to  England  to  take  a  brave  man's  part  in  the 
Puritan  battle  for  righteousness  and  freedom.  Goethe's 
visit  to  Italy  made  a  large  part  of  his    many-sided  edu- 


TURIN,   MILAN,  FLORENCE.  1 99 

cation.  Byron  found  in  Italy  a  theme  for  song,  and  his 
"  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  "  is  the  daily  companion  of 
many  a  traveller. 

My  mind  has  been  struck  anew  with  the  enormous  wealth 
of  greatness,  in  all  forms  of  human  achievement,  belonging 
to  this  marvellous  Italian  peninsula.  For  more  than  two 
thousand  years  this  fair  region  has  been  the  theatre  of 
events  in  which  human  genius  has  played  a  most  illustrious 
part.  If  we  should  select  seventy-five  of  the  greatest  per- 
sonalities in  history,  Italy  would  claim  her  full  share  among 
them  —  indeed,  one-fifth  of  all.  Judged  by  their  inherent 
mental  or  moral  worth  or  by  their  representative  character 
or  by  their  achievements  and  influence,  we  might  perhaps 
justly  say  that  these  are  the  foremost  personalities  of  all 
time  :  Abraham,  Moses,  Samuel,  David,  Isaiah,  St.  Paul, 
St.  Peter,  St.  John,  Homer,  Socrates,  Pericles,  Plato,  Phidias, 
Alexander ;  Rameses  II.,  Zoroaster,  Confucius,  Buddha, 
Mohammed ;  Akbar,  Charles  Martel,  Charlemagne,  St.  Ber- 
nard, St.  Louis,  Joan  of  Arc,  Calvin,  Pascal,  Voltaire,  Napo- 
leon, Gutenberg,  Luther,  Frederick  the  Great,  Kant,  Goethe, 
Bismarck  ;  Alfred,  Wyclif,  Bacon,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  New- 
ton, John  Knox,  Chatham,  Harvey,  James  Watt,  Gladstone, 
Livingstone,  Darwin  ;  Washington,  Franklin,  Lincoln,  Grant ; 
William  the  Silent,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Rembrandt,  Peter 
the  Great,  Ignatius  Loyola,  Cervantes,  Bolivar;  Ccesar, 
Cicero,  Augustus,  Virgil,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Constantine, 
Augustine,  Dante,  Hildebrand,  Francis  of  Assisi,  Michael 
Angelo,  Galileo,  Raphael,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Columbus, 
Cavour.  Of  these  the  last  sixteen  belong  to  Italy.  I  in- 
clude Constantine  in  the  Italian  list  because,  although  born 
in  England  and  founding  a  capital  on  the  Bosphorus,  he  was 
essentially  Roman,  and  had  in  Italy  one  sphere  of  his  ac- 
tivity. I  include  St.  Augustine  because,  though  born  in 
Africa,  his  chief  life  was  here,  and  he  is  justly  esteemed 
the  greatest  of  the  Latin  fathers.  I  choose  Cavour  be- 
cause he  best  represents  the  struggle  for  Italian  libera- 
tion and  unity.     Some  of  my  readers  may  make  a  better 


200  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

selection  than  mine,  but  they  will  not  find  the  Italian 
stars  in  the  great  human  constellation  any  less  luminous 
or  splendid. 

Emerging  from  the  long  tunnel,  we  descended  rapidly 
toward  the  Piedmontese  plain.  The  lofty  snow-peaks  were 
in  full  harmony  with  the  wintry  morning  air.  Many  water- 
falls tumbled  down  into  little  streams,  affluents  to  the  greater 
Po.  Chestnut-trees  grew  frequent,  and  told  us  of  one  of 
the  sources  of  the  thrifty  Italian's  food.  As  we  descended, 
vineyards  began  to  multiply,  and  at  last  we  came  upon  tiny 
cornfields.  We  had  also  come  to  the  land  of  history,  which 
seems  to  us  "Americans  very  old.  Our  train  passed  through 
one  little  village  where  a  Roman  triumphal  arch  still  stands, 
which  was  finished  the  very  year  when  Jesus,  a  boy  of  twelve, 
went  up  to  the  temple  in  Jerusalem.  We  looked  down 
upon  the  gray  roofs  and  houses,  some  of  them  appearing 
like  wasps'  nests,  that  seemed  very  old  indeed.  But  after 
a  while  we  slid  into  the  fertile  Piedmontese  lowlands,  and 
were  soon  debarking  from  the  train  in  the  proud,  thriving, 
modern-looking  city  of  Turin,  the  former  capital  of  the 
kingdom  of  Sardinia,  and  the  first  capital  of  the  new  king- 
dom of  Italy. 

The  impression  is  made  at  once,  even  in  Turin,  —  an  im- 
pression daily  deepened  while  in  Italy,  —  that  this  is  the  land 
of  art,  of  monumental  art  and  every  other  kind.  There 
are  half  a  dozen  statues  in  the  squares  of  Turin  which 
make  one  feel  how  timid,  tame,  and  clumsy  are  very  many 
of  the  corresponding  works  in  England  and  America,  erected 
to  the  honor  of  great  men.  The  statue  of  Count  Cavour, 
an  elaborate  monument  in  white  marble,  on  which  is  written 
Cavour's  favorite  motto,  "  A  free  Church  and  a  free  State," 
first  thrilled  me  twenty-three  years  ago,  and  has  lost  none  of 
its  powerful  charm.  Contrast  the  statue  of  the  knightly 
warrior  and  peacemaker  Emmanuel  Philibert  with  the 
statue  of  our  warrior  and  peacemaker  Grant !  A  four 
hours'  ride  over  the  great  northern  plain  of  Italy,  a  plain 
covered  by  many  a  martial  spoiler,  —  a  ride  that  took  us 


TURIN,  MILAN,  FLORENCE.  201 

by  the  battlefield  of  Magenta,  —  brought  us,  in  the  early 
evening  twilight  of  a  dark  day,  to  Milan. 

The  next  morning  promised  to  be  bright,  as  from  our 
window  we  looked  out  on  the  glorious  marble  crown  of  the 
cathedral.  As  in  the  fresh,  luminous  dawn  we  stood  in  the 
great  piazza  in  front  of  this  wonder  of  Gothic  art  and  feasted 
our  eyes  on  the  sculptured  pediments,  the  hundreds  of  as- 
piring minarets,  and  the  thousands  of  wondrous  statues, 
and  as  later  we  stood  within  this  gorgeous  pile,  which,  next 
to  St.  Peter's  and  the  cathedral  in  Seville,  is  the  largest 
church  in  Europe,  La  Signora  exclaimed,  "  Why  did  no  one 
ever  tell  me  that  the  Milan  cathedral  is  so  beautiful !  " 
It  is  easy  enough  to  feel,  but  it  is  simply  impossible  to  de- 
scribe so  as  to  make  others  adequately  realize  such  a  miracle 
in  stone  as  this.  Keats's  wealth  of  picturesque  and  melo- 
dious phrase,  Tennyson's  matchless  use  of  many-colored 
words,  Milton's  ample  and  sonorous  vocabulary,  might  all 
be  appropriately  lavished  on  the  Milan  cathedral,  which 
has  not  yet  found  its  poet. 

But,  after  all,  no  one  sees  the  cathedral  unless  he  climbs, 
as  we  did,  to  the  marble  roof.  That  rare  benefactor,  a  really 
serviceable  Italian  guide,  with  a  good  knowledge  of  French, 
piloted  us  heavenward.  No  other  church  is  so  easily  and 
comfortably  ascended.  You  never  are  choked  in  any  nar- 
row passage,  and  no  other  cathedral  is  so  well  worth 
climbing.  Once  on  the  roof  the  heart  begins  to  swell  as 
the  eye  rests  on  decorated  pinnacle  after  pinnacle,  each 
one  beautifully  and  sumptuously  carved,  each  one  shelter- 
ing heroic  or  saintly  statues  under  its  gracious  canopies 
and  carrying  some  nobler  and  grander  figure  on  its  sum- 
mit. It  is  a  forest  of  sculptured  art  that  enraptures  the 
mind ;  and  as  you  go  higher,  the  wonder  grows.  It  is  a 
wilderness,  a  luxuriant  flower-garden  of  blossoming  stone, 
that  enchants  the  eye  and  astonishes  the  intellect.  Hun- 
dreds of  flowers  and  hundreds  of  fruits  are  wedded  to  the 
tropic  ornamentation.  There  is  no  repetition  anywhere. 
The    lofty    marble    balustrades    are    amazingly    rich    and 


202  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

beautiful,  and  seem  endless.  You  look  out  over  a  network 
of  white  stone  cut  into  lace-like  patterns,  and  then  you 
begin  to  study  in  detail  each  minaret  and  to  wonder  whom 
these  more  than  three  thousand  life-size  figures  in  marble 
really  represent. 

One's  braiu  must  be  a  library,  as  our  guide  truly  said, 
to  know  half  of  them.  One  form,  however,  standing  sub- 
lime upon  a  pinnacle  in  the  loftiest  row,  all  the  world  is 
eager  to  distinguish.  He  was  no  saint,  the  man  who  looks 
down  from  this  dizzy  and  dazzling  perch.  He  holds  in 
his  hand  what  seems  like  a  lance.  It  is  really  a  rod  that 
draws  off  the  lightning's  bolts.  The  heavens  flash  and 
roar  around  his  marble  semblance,  as  the  earth  flashed 
and  roared  around  his  human  career.  One  of  his  earliest 
achievements  was  to  add  Italy  to  France.  It  was  he  who 
ordered  the  finishing  of  the  Milan  cathedral,  and  here  in 
the  Lombard  capital  he  was  crowned  with  an  iron  crown. 
Napoleon  !  — 

"  That  name  consumed  the  silence  of  the  snows 
In  Alpine  keeping,  holy  and  cloud-hid ; 
The  mimic  eagles  dared  what  Nature's  did 
And  over-rushed  her  mountainous  repose 
In  search  of  eyries  ;  and  the  Egyptian  river 
Mingled  the  same  word  with  its  grand  '  Forever.'  " 

We  climbed  the  four  hundred  and  eighty-six  steps  that 
lead  to  the  top  of  the  central  spire,  and  from  this  flashing 
jewel  of  the  diadem  of  the  Lombard  queen  we  looked  out 
over  the  beautiful  city  and  the  far-reaching  plains,  to  the 
foot  of  the  Alps,  and  even  farther,  for  St.  Gothard  drew 
wide  asunder  his  cloudy  veil  and  showed  us  the  white 
mountain  throne  which  shot  thirteen  thousand  feet  upward 
into  the  blue  and  ever-brightening  skies.  It  was  a  vision 
never  to  be  forgotten.  Reluctantly  we  descended,  but 
once  more  within  the  cathedral  its  splendid  beauty  seemed 
diviner  than  ever. 

But  Milan  has  other  attractions  besides  the  cathedral. 
The  statue  of  the  great  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  painter,  mathe- 


TURIN,  MILAN,   FLORENCE.  203 

matician,  engineer,  inventor,  is  one  of  the  ornaments  of 
the  city.  His  "Last  Supper"  in  the  monastic  refectory, 
defaced  though  it  be  by  time,  is,  with  one  exception,  the 
most  famous  of  pictures,  and  draws  to  it  pilgrim  feet  from 
all  civilized  lands. 

Milan's  art  gallery  also  should  be  seen.  In  its  court- 
yard stands  Canova's  impressive  "  Napoleon,"  and  in  one 
of  its  rooms  is  Raphael's  "  Marriage  of  the  Virgin,"  cer- 
tainly among  the  sweetest  of  all  his  pictures.  Then  there 
is  the  historically  interesting  and  very  ancient  church  of 
St.  Ambrose,  within  which  he  baptized  the  young  Augus- 
tine. Here  is  still  kept  the  marble  chair  in  which  Roman 
and  German  emperors  were  crowned.  We  sat  in  it  — 
this  chair  of  Theodosius  and  Charlemagne  and  Napoleon  — 
and  felt  as  if  we  had  come  close  to  much  that  was  greatest 
in  the  history  of  fifteen  centuries. 

From  Milan  to  Florence  !  It  was  a  ride  through  one  of 
the  richest  of  historic  landscapes  ;  by  fields  of  rice  and 
corn,  watered  artificially,  yielding  twelve  crops  a  year, 
and  reminding  us  of  California ;  by  the  bridge  of  Lodi, 
where  Napoleon  led  the  fiery  onset  of  his  troops ;  through 
cities  linked  with  the  wars  of  the  second  Roman  trium- 
virate ;  through  Bologna,  the  learned,  and  then,  as  night 
came  on,  and  the  moon  threw  her  silver  mantle  over  field 
and  stream,  along  the  banks  of  the  Reno,  up  the  gorges  of 
the  Apennines,  and  thence  downward  across  the  Tuscan 
plains,  —  it  was  such  a  ride  that  carried  us  to  Florence, 
loveliest  of  all  Italian  cities. 

I  am  happy  to  think  that  there  are  many  people  in 
many  lands  who  love  Florence  as  warmly  as  I  do.  In 
this  my  second  visit,  the  affectionate  enthusiasm  which 
has  never  left  me  since  I  first  stood  before  Giotto's  Tower 
and  Raphael's  Madonnas,  Michael  Angelo's  "  David  "  and 
Ghiberti's  celestial  gates,  has  been  greatly  deepened. 

My  companion,  not  agreeing  with  me  in  all  things,  still 
agrees  with  me  in  the  blissful  conviction  that  Florence  is 
the  most  beautiful  and  inspiring  place  on  earth.     I  choose 


204  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

these  adjectives  deliberately,  because  I  know  not  where 
else  to  find  so  much  which  feeds  the  love  of  the  beautiful 
and  the  love  of  the  noble  and  heroic.  If  Athens  had 
been  Christian  in  her  classic  age,  I  might  make  an  excep- 
tion of  the  city  of  Minerva.  In  writing  of  our  happy  expe- 
riences here,  how  shall  I  make  a  selection,  when  our  joys 
have  been 

"Thick  as  autumnal  leaves  that  strew  the  brooks 
In  Vallombrosa,  where  the  Etrurian  shades 
High  overarch'd  embower  "  ? 

These  familiar  lines  from  "  Paradise  Lost  "  occurred 
to  us  on  Galileo's  Tower,  whose  steps  the  youthful  Milton 
climbed  to  see  the  great  astronomer.  It  is  on  the  south 
bank  of  the  Arno  beyond  the  hill  and  church  of  San 
Miniato,  and  has  now  become  an  interesting  Galileo 
Museum,  filled  with  portraits  of  the  brave  Christian  man  of 
science  and  with  memorials  of  his  life.  Among  these  are 
two  pictures  which  represent  Milton's  visit.  Another  is  a 
copy  of  the  ecclesiastical  sentence  of  condemnation.  Still 
another  is  one  of  the  telescopes  which  he  is  said  to  have 
used,  —  a  tiny  instrument  for  piercing  and  conquering  the 
heavenly  deeps,  compared  with  that  which  is  so  soon  to 
be  placed  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Geneva  in  Wisconsin.  We 
had  a  long  climb  before  reaching  the  Tower,  which  is  really 
part  of  a  spacious  house  in  the  midst  of  a  lovely  garden ; 
but  the  objects  within  it,  and  especially  the  view  from  its 
summit,  on  such  a  perfect  October  afternoon,  were  ample 
recompense.  Florence  lay  at  our  feet,  and  all  its  loftier 
buildings  stood  out  in  grand  relief.  About  us  were  gardens 
and  churches  and  vineyards,  groups  of  olive-trees,  and  rows 
of  tall  and  solemn  cypresses ;  and  to  the  north  and  east, 
beyond  the  city,  were  the  beautiful  hills,  so  many  of  them 
crowned  with  dazzling  villas,  hills  reaching  away  to  the 
Apennines.  Among  the  nearer  summits  was  Fiesole. 
Surely  this  was  the  place  to  recall  and  repeat  Milton's  de- 
scription of  Satan's  shield,  for  he  doubtless  remembered 
what  we  saw  when  he  dictated  the  famous  lines,  — 


TURIN,  MILAN,  FLORENCE.  20 5 

"  The  broad  circumference 
Hung  on  his  shoulders  like  the  moon,  whose  orb 
Through  optic  glass  the  Tuscan  artist  views 
At  evening,  from  the  top  of  Fiesole 
Or  in  Valdarno,  to  descry  new  lands. 
Rivers  or  mountains  in  her  spotty  globe." 

But  come  with  us  back  to  the  city.  We  saw  the  house 
in  which  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  wrote  and  died.  What 
sweet  visions  she  had  from  her  Casa  Guidi  windows  !  It 
was  pleasant  to  see  that  grateful  Florence  has  marked  with 
a  spacious  marble  tablet  the  home  of  her  who  made  the 
cause  of  Italian  freedom  and  unity  her  own.  We  also  stood 
by  her  grave  in  the  beautiful  little  cemetery,  where  we 
saw,  besides,  the  graves  of  Arthur  Hugh  Clough,  Theodore 
Parker,  and  Walter  Savage  Landor.  The  poet  Clough  was 
dear  to  Emerson,  and  very  dear  to  Lowell,  who  in  his 
poem  on  Agassiz,  written  in  Florence,  pays  a  tender  tribute 
to  this  young  English  genius,  who  rests  "  not  by  still  Isis  or 
historic  Thames,"  but 

"  By  Arno's  hallowed  brim, 
Haply  not  mindless,  wheresoe'er  he  be, 
Of  violets  which  to-day  I  scattered  over  him." 

Theodore  Parker's  grave  inspired  me  with  deep  and 
rather  mixed  emotions.  The  inscription  which  friends  have 
written  upon  the  brave  man's  tomb  has  a  slightly  exagger- 
ated and  defiant  tone  of  eulogy,  not  altogether  pleasing  to 
some  of  us  who  really  reverence  Theodore  Parker's  un- 
doubted greatness.  The  slab  which  marks  the  resting-place 
of  Walter  Savage  Landor,  who  lived  so  many  years  in  his 
suburban  Florentine  villa,  is  an  almost  painfully  simple 
memorial,  lying  flat  upon  the  soil.  A  becoming  monument 
to  Landor  would  be  a  classic  Grecian  temple,  with  polished 
marble  shafts  adorned  with  Phidian  sculptures  and  in- 
scribed with  choicest  verses  from  the  Attic  poets. 

The  Florentine  art-treasures,  as  most  people  know,  are 
of  the  highest  order,  and  are  practically  inexhaustible.  I 
do  not  refer  merely  to  those  in  the  Uffizi  Gallery,  nor  to 


206  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

the  richer  treasures  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  nor  to  the  half 
mile  of  pictures  reaching  across  the  Arno  and  connect- 
ing these  two  famous  collections ;  but  I  have  in  mind  also 
the  valuable  works  in  the  Academy,  the  statues  in  the 
squares  and  other  public  places,  and  the  marvellous  adorn- 
ments of  the  monasteries  and  churches.  I  apprehend  that 
in  the  Church  of  the  Annunciation  there  is  greater  artistic 
wealth  than  can  be  found  in  some  of  our  large  cities.  In 
Florence  we  have  made  a  new  friend  in  Andrea  del  Sarto  ; 
we  have  come  to  see  in  Giotto  not  only  a  great  architect 
but  also  a  great  painter,  while  three  of  Raphael's  Madonnas 
and  his  portrait  of  Pope  Julius  II.  have  given  us  a  fresh 
conception  of  his  almost  unearthly  power.  But  while  one 
learns  to  love  Raphael,  he  bows  more  and  more  in  rever- 
ence before  Michael  Angelo,  architect,  sculptor,  engineer, 
painter,  poet,  patriot ;  the  most  complete  and  colossal 
genius  belonging  to  the  domain  of  art.  His  splendid 
"David  "  looks  as  if  he  were  consciously  able  to  overcome 
a  dozen  Goliaths.  How  noble  are  the  unfinished  figures 
Night  and  Day,  Dawn  and  Twilight,  in  the  chapel  of  the 
Medicis  !  We  visited  the  house  of  Michael  Angelo,  which, 
like  Goethe's  in  Weimar,  is  a  treasury  of  art.  We  saw  his 
Holy  Family  in  the  "  Tribune,"  and  laid  our  hands  on  the 
fortifications  built  by  him,  behind  which  the  Florentines  for 
eleven  months  successfully  resisted  the  attacks  of  Charles  V. 
of  Spain. 

But  Florence  summons  before  us  an  even  loftier  shade 
than  Michael  Angelo's.  We  entered  the  old  cathedral, 
now  the  Baptistery,  to  which  it  is  said  that  every  child  born 
in  Florence  is  brought.  The  priests  were  waiting  for  the 
infants  who  might  be  carried  thither  at  any  time  ;  but  my 
mind  was  busy  with  thoughts  of  the  little  child  christened 
there  more  than  six  centuries  ago.  He  was  to  become  the 
greatest  of  Italian  poets,  and  many  believe  the  loftiest  poet 
of  all  time.  It  has  been  said  that  while  Shakespeare  saw 
things,  and  Goethe  saw  into  things,  Dante  saw  through 
them.     The  light  which  he  brings  from  hell  and  purgatory 


U 

z 


u 
> 


TURIN,  MILAN,  FLORENCE.  207 

and  paradise  illumines  not  only  his  own  age,  but  the  minds 
of  cultivated  men  in  all  subsequent  ages.  The  house  where 
he  was  born  is  still  preserved,  and  also  the  stone  on  which 
he  sat  in  the  Square  of  the  Duomo,  watching  "  the  slow 
blocks  swing  up,  to  complete  the  master-thought  of  Ar- 
nolfo,"  the  architect  to  whose  labors  Brunelleschi  suc- 
ceeded. One  imposing  monument  to  Dante  stands  before 
the  Church  of  Santa  Croce,  and  another  within  that  hal- 
lowed shrine,  the  Pantheon  of  Italy ;  but  the  body  of  the 
poet  whom  Florence,  the  "  all-loving  mother  bore  "  and 
afterwards  exiled,  rests  at  Ravenna,  near  the  shores  of  the 
Adriatic.  The  suffering  life  of  this  great  man  is  another 
illustration  of  how  heroic  and  lofty  souls  may  meet  mis- 
understanding and  persecution,  while  the  honors  heaped 
upon  Dante  since  his  death  speak  of  the  assured  justice  of 
repentant  and  slow-pondering  Time.  I  remember  how 
Wendell  Phillips  exclaimed  in  i860:  "The  day  will  come 
when  Virginia,  clothed  and  in  her  right  mind,  will  beg  of 
New  York  the  dust  of  John  Brown  for  some  mausoleum  at 
Richmond,  just  as  repentant  Florence,  robed  in  sackcloth, 
begged  of  Ravenna  the  dust  of  that  outlawed  Dante,  whom 
a  hundred  years  before  she  had  ordered  to  be  burnt  alive." 
How  extravagant  the  prediction  !  But  the  fulfilment  of 
such  extravagances  is  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  history. 
Like  all  other  frequenters  of  these  scenes,  we  crossed 
and  recrossed  the  Ponte  Vecchio,  about  which  Longfellow 
has  written  so  beautiful  a  sonnet,  making  the  old  bridge 
proudly  soliloquize  "  Taddeo  Gaddi  built  me,"  "  Florence 
decks  me  with  her  jewelry,"  "  Michael  Angelo  hath  leaned 
on  me."  We  visited  the  Church  of  St.  Michael,  interesting 
to  me  from  the  fact  that  the  various  guilds  of  Florence 
have  decorated  the  exterior  walls  with  fine  statues  of  the 
Apostles.  In  Santa  Croce,  Italy's  Westminster  Abbey,  and 
in  the  Portico  of  the  Uffizi,  adorned  with  marble  statues  of 
great  Florentines,  I  realized  that,  as  some  one  has  said, 
"  fame  is  as  cheap  here  as  notoriety  is  elsewhere,"  and 
that  "  Florence  stands  next  to  Athens  in  teaching  the  way 


208  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

in  which  man  may  make  himself  immortal."  And  how 
many  of  my  readers  know  that  the  most  beautiful  campanile 
in  the  world  is  made  of  many-colored  marble,  delighting 
the  eye  not  only  by  its  height  and  perfect  proportions,  but 
also  by  its  harmony  of  color- tones? 

"  In  the  old  Tuscan  town  stands  Giotto's  Tower, 
The  lily  of  Florence,  blossoming  in  stone, 
A  vision,  a  delight,  and  a  desire, 
The  builder's  perfect  and  centennial  flower, 
Yet  wanting  still  the  glory  of  the  spire." 

It  made  me  happy  to  see  that  the  rude,  unfinished  west 
end  of  the  cathedral,  an  offence  to  the  eye  for  centuries, 
has  been  beautifully  and  even  gorgeously  finished  in  colored 
marbles.  How  many  churches  in  Florence,  —  San  Spirito, 
Santa  Croce,  Santa  Maria  del  Carmine,  and  others,  —  rich 
within  in  every  form  of  beautiful  art,  are  still  rough  and 
unfinished  without !  But  even  this  has  one  advantage,  — 
you  find  on  entering  these  church  doors  infinitely  more 
than  you  expected. 

The  glorious  culmination  of  all  my  interest  in  Florence 
was  the  visit  to  San  Marco,  where  Savonarola  lived  and 
prayed,  and  the  many  visits  to  the  Piazza  del  Signoria, 
only  a  few  yards  from  our  hotel,  where  his  body  was 
burned  at  the  stake.  The  Monastery  of  St.  Mark  is  made 
beautiful  and  holy,  not  only  by  the  prayers  and  preach- 
ing of  the  great  Dominican  monk,  but  also  by  the  prayers 
and  paintings  of  Fra  Bartolommeo  and  the  blessed  Fra 
Angelico.  Is  there  any  other  spot  on  earth  more  sacred 
to  saintly  beauty  and  saintly  heroism?  As  we  walked 
through  the  cells  of  the  monks,  in  each  of  which  Fra 
Angelico  had  painted  some  scene  from  the  life  of  Christ, 
and  as  later  we  saw  in  the  Academy  and  the  Pitti 
Palace  many  of  his  other  works,  I  realized  that  it  was 
spiritually  as  well  as  literally  true  that  he  painted  upon  his 
bended  knees.  His  Madonna,  with  two  saints  surrounded 
by  twelve  musical  angels,  has  a  splendor  which  equals  its 
unapproachable  holiness.      And  who  could  enter  Savona- 


TURIN,  MILAN,  FLORENCE.  20Q 

rola's  cell,  and  think  of  his  agonies  and  aspirations  and 
illuminations,  and  then  remember  his  fate,  without  having 
a  strange  choking  in  his  throat?  We  saw  the  pulpit  from 
which  he  preached  to  his  brother  monks,  and  we  stood  in 
the  great  Duomo,  where  he,  a  Florentine  Elijah,  preached 
to  the  people  of  his  time.  But  in  the  Piazza  del  Signoria, 
with  the  great  tower  of  the  Old  Palace  looking  down  upon 
him  and  his  two  companions,  condemned  with  him  to  the 
flames,  is  the  central  shrine  of  this  man's  memory.  Thou- 
sands to  whom  he  would  otherwise  be  almost  unknown, 
have  come  to  love  him  through  the  pages  of  "  Romola." 
The  picture  of  his  execution,  which  we  saw  at  San  Marco, 
represents  him  as  having  been  strangled  before  his  body 
was  burned.  Standing  by  the  place  of  his  death,  see- 
ing the  happy  crowds  of  prosperous  Florence,  or  hearing 
there  the  music  which  on  Sunday  afternoons  is  rendered 
by  a  military  band  placed  among  the  statues  of  the  Loggia, 
which  forms  one  side  of  the  square,  and  thinking  of  what 
has  occurred  since  Savonarola's  spirit  was  breathed  out  to 
God,  I  could  but  say,  in  the  words  of  Galileo,  spoken  in  this 
same  city,  "The  world  does  move."  Italy  is  free,  the  Gos- 
pel is  not  bound ;  the  martyrdom  of  Savonarola  was  one  of 
the  gates  of  entrance  to  the  modern  world  of  toleration  and 
mental  freedom.  No  honors  are  too  great  for  the  brave  monk 
or  for  the  exiled  poet  or  for  the  persecuted  astronomer. 

"  The  hooting  mob  of  yesterday  in  silent  awe  return, 
To  glean  up  the  scattered  ashes  into  History's  golden  urn." 

Sunday  morning  we  had  great  joy  in  the  Gospel  as 
preached  in  the  Presbyterian  church  by  the  Reverend  Mr. 
McDougall,  a  Scotch  minister,  who  told  with  touching  elo- 
quence how  the  fragrance  of  Mary's  alabaster  box  of  oint- 
ment had  gone  out  to  all  the  earth.  After  what  we  had 
seen  and  felt  before,  this  service  in  the  Protestant  meeting- 
house, which  Savonarola  and  Galileo,  Martin  Luther  and 
John  Knox,  Garibaldi  and  Victor  Emmanuel  had  helped  to 
make  possible,  was  the  culmination  of  all  our  experiences. 

14 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

ROME    AND    NAPLES. 

'""PHE  "  lone  mother  of  dead  empires  "  is  to-day  the  happy 

■"■     and  even  jubilant  capital  of  young,  free  Italy.     One 

cannot  feel  very  much  in  the  Byronic  mood,  coming  to  the 

Eternal  City,  as  we  have  done,  during  the  week  of  festivities 

over  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Naples.     Byron  made 

everything  which  he  saw  a  reflection  of  his  own  bitter  and 

disappointed  spirit.     He  called  himself  an  "  orphan  of  the 

heart,"  and  found  in  Roman  ruins  a  most  congenial  theme 

for  his  proud,  scornful,  and  sometimes  affectedly  humble 

muse. 

"  What  are  our  woes  and  sufferance,  come  and  see 
The  cypress,  hear  the  owl,  and  plod  your  way 
O'er  steps  of  broken  thrones  and  temples,  ye 
Whose  agonies  are  evils  of  the  day. 
A  world  is  at  our  feet,  as  fragile  as  our  clay." 

My  companion  is  enjoying  her  first  astonishment  over  the 
treasure-house  of  art  and  antiquity.  Undoubtedly  a  visit 
here  is  the  chief  experience  that  comes  to  the  European 
traveller.  The  Roman  pictures  are  not  equal  in  beauty, 
though  they  may  be  in  interest,  to  those  of  Paris,  Dresden, 
or  Florence.  Raphael's  "Transfiguration,"  great  though  it 
is,  does  not  rank  with  the  "  Sistine  Madonna."  Domeni- 
chino's  "  Last  Communion  of  St.  Jerome  "  is  a  noble  canvas  ; 
Guido  Reni's  "Aurora"  and  "St.  Michael"  are  worthy  of 
their  fame.  Half  a  dozen  other  pictures,  including  of  course 
Raphael's  "  Madonna  da  Foligno,"  are  in  the  front  rank. 
But  there  is  no  one  picture  gallery  to  be  mentioned  with  the 
Louvre  or  the  Pitti  Palace.     In  sculpture,  however,  Rome 


ROME   AND  NAPLES.  211 

is  supreme.  We  have  seen  the  "  Dying  Gladiator,"  the 
"  Faun  "  of  Praxiteles,  of  which  Hawthorne  has  given  us  so 
fine  an  interpretation,  the  Capitoline  Venus,  the  Apollo 
Belvedere,  the  "Laocoon,"  the  "Torso"  of  Hercules,  the 
"  Niobe,"  the  "Augustus  Caesar,"  the  "  Head  of  Zeus,"  the 
"  Demosthenes,"  the  busts  of  the  Caesars,  Michael  Angelo's 
stupendous  "Moses,"  his  beautiful  "  Pieta  "  in  St.  Peter's, 
his  sweet,  strong  risen  Christ,  carrying  the  cross,  in  Santa 
Maria  Sopra  Minerva,  and  the  other  chief  masterpieces  of 
sculptured  art.  But  I  must  add  that,  though  the  canvases 
of  Rome  may  not  equal  those  of  the  three  other  cities,  the 
fresco  painting  in  the  Vatican  is  unsurpassed  elsewhere.  I 
find  that  in  this  second  visit  I  care  far  more  than  in  the  first  for 
the  Sistine  Chapel,  where  Michael  Angelo's  colossal  prophets 
and  sibyls  look  down  upon  you  as  from  the  sky.  His  "  Last 
Judgment,"  too,  darkened  though  it  has  been  and  disfigured 
by  other  hands,  is  astonishing,  if  not  highly  satisfactory. 
The  truth  is  that  the  Christ  of  the  "  Final  Judgment,"  the 
beautiful  Jesus  of  the  cradle,  and  the  agonized  Sufferer  on  the 
cross,  the  most  familiar  forms  in  classic  Italian  art,  do  not  ade- 
quately or  truly  represent  the  tender  graciousness,  the  benefi- 
cent humanity,  and  the  all-embracing  love  of  that  Redeemer 
who  is  reverenced  by  modern  Christians  that  have  gained 
their  ruling  conceptions  from  the  Gospels.  Raphael's  fres- 
cos in  the  Vatican  are  magnificent  compositions,  especially 
the  "Parnassus,"  the  "School  of  Athens,"  the  "  Disputa," 
the  "  Incendio  del  Borgo,"  and  the  "  Liberation  of  Peter." 
One  who  is  familiar  only  with  his  Madonnas  will  be  aston- 
ished at  the  tremendous  power  illustrated  by  the  hand  which 
pencilled  so  many  sweet  maternal  faces. 

But  as  in  Florence,  so  in  Rome,  I  felt  that  there  is  but  one 
master-spirit,  and  Emerson's  lines  came  to  my  lips  often,  — 

"The  hand  that  rounded  Peter's  dome, 
And  groined  the  aisles  of  Christian  Rome, 
Wrought  with  a  sad  sincerity. 
Himself  from  God  he  could  not  free, 
He  builded  better  than  he  knew, 
The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew." 


212  A    IVORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

The  perfection  of  the  separate  parts  in  St.  Peter's  — 
Michael  Angelo's  master-work  —  is  so  complete  that  we  are 
slow  in  appreciating  its  colossal  proportions.  I  have  made 
thirteen  visits  in  all  to  this  greatest  of  Christian  shrines,  and, 
while  I  find  it  far  from  the  best  place  in  which  to  worship 
God,  I  scarcely  know  of  any  other  place  where  I  more  rev- 
erence the  genius  and  power  of  man.  One  also  feels  the 
mighty  pedigree  of  the  Papal  Church,  and  in  a  hundred 
ways  realizes  the  strength  and  ubiquity  of  Roman  Catholi- 
cism to-day.  It  has  been  said  that  in  the  Vatican  only  do 
men  think  and  plan  for  the  whole  world. 

I  am  greatly  impressed  with  the  changes  which  have  oc- 
curred in  Rome  since  1874.  The  city  of  course  is  much 
larger,  and  has  been  greatly  modernized.  New  and  bril- 
liant thoroughfares  have  been  constructed,  and  tramways 
introduced.  Think  of  taking  a  horse-car  to  the  Pantheon 
or  St.  Peter's  !  The  Via  Nazionale,  which  is  to-day  bril- 
liant with  decorations  in  honor  of  the  Crown  Prince's  mar- 
riage, is  a  splendid  avenue,  and,  driving  down  its  long 
course  between  double  rows  of  flags  and  starry  lamps  and 
the  shields  and  banners  of  the  hundred  cities  of  Italy,  one 
feels  that  he  is  in  the  well-to-do  modern  capital  of  a  happy 
and  hopeful  nation.  In  spite  of  the  national  and  municipal 
debt,  Rome  appears  to  be  prosperous.  Italy  has  been 
forced  to  do  in  twenty-five  years  the  work  of  a  century. 
Her  alliance  with  Germany  and  Austria  necessitates  an  im- 
mense standing  army,  draining  the  national  resources.  The 
people's  spirit,  however,  "rings  Roman  yet."  The  S.  P.  Q. 
R.  —  "  Senate  and  People  of  Rome  "  —  looks  well  on  the 
national  buildings. 

The  ancient  city  has  been  re-excavated  since  I  last  saw 
it.  "The  steps  of  broken  thrones  and  temples  "  have  had 
their  foundations  discovered.  The  interior  of  the  Colos- 
seum has  been  dug  out,  the  subterranean  chambers  have 
been  exposed,  till  the  immense  ruin  appears  greater  and 
higher  still.  A  similar  process  has  gone  on  in  the  Forum  and 
elsewhere.     Then   ecclesiastical    Rome   has    become   more 


ROME  AND  NAPLES.  213 

splendid.  That  jewel  among  all  churches,  St.  Paul's  out- 
side the  Walls,  shows  an  interior  of  polished  marbles,  adorned 
with  many  new  pictures,  while  the  long  series  of  the  por- 
traits of  the  popes  in  mosaic  has  been  completed.  The 
present  pontiff  has  lavished  a  deal  of  treasure  on  the  ceiling 
of  St.  John  Lateran,  —  the  mother  church  of  Roman  Chris- 
tendom. Here,  as  in  Florence,  many  of  the  churches  still 
present  very  shabby  exteriors,  while  the  wealth  of  art  and 
interest  within  is  almost  incalculable.  We  are  at  the 
Hotel  Minerva,  and  right  across  the  piazza  is  the  Church 
of  Santa  Maria  sopra  Minerva,  built  on  the  site  of  a 
Roman  temple  to  the  goddess  of  wisdom.  The  outside 
of  this  famous  structure  looks  like  a  great  stone  barn.  En- 
tering, however,  you  find  yourself  in  the  only  Gothic  interior 
in  Rome,  —  spacious,  elevated,  adorned  with  chapels,  richly 
ornamented,  and  containing  a  statue  of  the  Christ  by  Michael 
Angelo.  I  doubt  if  a  traveller  could  enjoy  in  all  the  churches 
of  New  York  City  artistic  riches  equal  to  those  of  Santa 
Maria  sopra  Minerva.  Rome  is  still  erecting  new  monu- 
ments to  celebrate  old  and  new  fames.  The  brave  martyr 
to  free  thought,  Giordano  Bruno,  now  stands  before  us  in 
bronze.  And  yonder,  by  the  Capitoline,  rises  the  immense 
marble  foundation  of  the  national  monument  to  Victor 
Emmanuel  II.,  on  which  already  seven  million  francs  have 
been  expended.  This  afternoon  we  visited  his  tomb  in 
the  Pantheon.  On  it  are  the  words  "  Father  of  the 
Country."  Many  thousands  of  grateful  Italians  were  flock- 
ing to  this  honored  sepulchre  on  this  day  of  national 
rejoicing.  We  were  not  able  to  enter  the  Pantheon  before 
to-day  on  account  of  the  floods  from  the  Tiber,  tawny 
and  swollen,  which  had  submerged  the  entrance  to  the 
building. 

One  of  our  interesting  experiences  was  to  visit  the  graves 
of  Shelley  and  Keats,  in  the  English  cemetery,  near  the 
Ostian  Gate.  Only  the  ashes  of  Shelley  are  buried  here. 
After  his  death  by  shipwreck  his  body  was  burned,  but  his 
heart  was  taken  to  England.     The  alchemy  by  which  the 


214  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

spirit  of  the  true  poet  is  immortalized  is  beautifully  sug- 
gested by  the  lines  on  his  tomb,  — 

"Nothing  of  him  that  doth  fade, 
But  doth  suffer  a  sea-change 
Into  something  rich  and  strange." 

I  had  much  deeper  feelings  at  the  tomb  of  John  Keats, 
on  whose  gravestone  the  poet's  name  is  not  inscribed,  but 
whereon  we  read  the  strange  epitaph,  written  at  his  own 
request,  in  the  bitterness  of  his  soul :  "  Here  lies  one  whose 
name  was  writ  in  water."  That  name,  however,  is  carved 
in  adamant.  Keats's  brain  was  the  splendid  workshop  of 
beauty,  and  "  a  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  forever."  He  who 
wrote  the  "  Ode  to  the  Nightingale  "  and  the  "  Ode  to  a 
Grecian  Urn  "  will  outlast  the  Roman  temples  and  tombs 
that  are  found  so  near  to  his  sepulchre. 

But  I  must  write  something  about  this  day  of  wedding 
festivity  and  national  rejoicing.  On  the  tower  of  the  capi- 
tal above  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  on  every  public  building 
and  from  innumerable  houses  floats  the  broad  banner  of 
the  new  kingdom,  "  taking  all  heaven  with  its  white,  green, 
and  red."  Day  before  yesterday,  from  the  stand  in  front 
of  the  church  where  the  wedding  ceremonies  were  to  take 
place,  we  saw  the  royal  procession  which  welcomed  the 
Prince  of  Naples  and  the  Princess  of  Montenegro  on  their 
arrival.  This  morning,  through  the  kindness  of  the  Rev- 
erend Dr.  R.  J.  Nevin  of  St.  Paul's  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  we  were  given  seats,  erected  on  the  Via  Nazionale, 
by  which  the  wedding  procession  was  to  pass.  The  day  was 
perfect.  After  the  early  morning  rain  the  heavens  were 
clouded,  but  no  drops  fell.  The  long  way  from  the  Quiri- 
nal  Palace  to  the  Church  of  St.  Mary  of  the  Angels  was 
lined  on  either  side  with  double  rows  of  Italian  soldiers. 
Their  various  uniforms  made  a  brilliant  picture.  Gorgeous 
captains,  colonels,  and  generals  rode  up  and  down  the 
street.  The  crowd  that  pressed  the  lines  of  troops  on  both 
sides,  or  that  peered  from  windows,  housetops,  and  bal- 
conies, was  simply  uncountable.     I  have  not  seen  so  many 


ROME  AND  NAPLES.  21  5 

people  since  Chicago  Day  at  the  World's  Fair.  There  was, 
however,  a  notable  absence  of  priests,  usually  so  numerous 
in  Rome. 

The  populace  here  is  the  best-natured  in  the  world. 
Men  and  women  with  little  children  in  their  arms  bore  the 
pushing  and  crowding  with  laughing  good-humor.  But 
there  was  no  sun  to  beat  down  upon  their  heads  and  make 
them  uncomfortable.  Princely  carriages,  with  gorgeous  red 
liveries,  swept  up  the  street,  carrying  the  guests  invited  to 
the  ceremony.  Finally  came  the  royal  body-guard,  a  splen- 
did troop  of  horse.  Then  appeared  the  royal  coach,  drawn 
by  six  splendid  chargers,  containing  King  Humbert,  Queen 
Margherita,  and  the  Prince  of  Naples.  In  the  next  coach 
was  the  beautiful  bride,  with  her  father  and  brother.  Then 
came  the  Queen  of  Portugal,  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of 
Aosta,  and  other  members  of  the  royal  suite.  The  whole 
spectacle  was  most  beautiful.  But  the  cheering  and  enthu- 
siasm were  greatly  increased  when,  an  hour  later,  the  great 
procession  returned  and  the  happy  prince  and  his  beautiful 
bride  sat  together.  The  bands  played,  the  bells  rang,  the 
long  lines  of  soldiers  presented  arms,  the  people  shouted 
and  waved  their  handkerchiefs,  and  the  newly  wedded  pair, 
on  whom  so  much  of  Italy's  future  depends,  bowed  right 
and  left  to  the  friendly  thousands  of  people.  At  the 
moment  when  the  wedding  ceremony  in  the  church  was 
completed  one  hundred  carrier  pigeons  were  set  free  at  the 
fountain  in  front  of  it.  But  every  omen  has  been  favor- 
able. The  illuminations  which  we  saw  this  evening,  the  long 
lines  and  festoons  and  stars  of  white,  green,  and  red  lights 
leading  up  to  the  Quirinal,  drew  all  Rome  together  again. 
The  Princess  is  remarkably  lovely,  and  won  all  hearts. 
But  the  future  Queen  of  Italy  did  not  outshine  the  present 
Queen,  the  people's  favorite.  Some  Americans,  resident  in 
Italy,  have  adopted  her  as  their  own,  and  we  overheard 
one  of  them  say,  "  Our  Queen  is  more  beautiful,  even,  than 
the  Princess,  and  is  just  as  young-looking."  Take  it  all  in 
all,  this  has  been  a  wonderful  day,  and  we  have  entered  into 


2l6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

hearty  sympathy  with  the  joys  and  hopes  of  this  most  lov- 
able of  European  peoples.  Our  pleasant  days  in  the  Eternal 
City  have  been  made  pleasanter  still  by  kindnesses  from  the 
American  ambassador,  the  Hon.  Wayne  MacVeagh,  from 
Consul-General  Jones,  and  Monsignor  O'Connell,  the  head 
of  the  American  Catholic  College.  I  greatly  regret  that  I 
cannot  remain  for  another  week  for  a  promised  interview 
with  the  venerable  Pope  Leo  XIII.  I  am  also  sorry  that 
Cavaliere  Matteo  Prochet,  whom  we  welcomed  to  Chicago 
three  years  ago  at  the  meeting  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance, 
is  at  present  away  from  Rome. 

It  is  impossible  to  summarize  my  fresh  impressions  of 
the  city  of  the  Caesars  and  of  the  Pontiffs.  But  I  will  refer 
to  a  few  things  which  have  moved  us  most  deeply.  In  the 
superb  Vatican  library  and  museums,  among  three  hundred 
churches  and  near  them  a  half-score  Egyptian  obelisks, 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  some  papal  pontifex  maximus, 
one  feels  that  this  is  indeed  the  city  of  the  popes.  While 
there  is  much  in  the  forms  and  ideas  of  the  great  Roman 
church  with  which  I  am  not  in  harmony,  while  my  heart 
sinks  when  I  see  the  pilgrims  climbing  the  Holy  Staircase  on 
their  knees,  and  when  I  read  the  promises  of  indulgence 
and  behold  the  acts  of  worship  given  to  the  Bambino,  I 
feel  as  perhaps  never  before  the  wondrous  charm  and 
power  and  present  revived  vigor  of  Catholicism.  One  can- 
not see  what  beautiful  and  lofty  conceptions  have  gone  into 
so  many  of  the  statues  and  pictures  and  altars  without 
realizing  that  a  large  part  of  revealed  truth  has  here  been 
embodied  and  portrayed,  and  that  many  find  in  it  peace 
and  strength.  Still,  I  do  not  look  to  Italy,  but  to  the 
Catholic  Church  as  it  exists  in  the  United  States,  for  the 
spirit,  method,  and  ideals  which  may  yet  bring  this  vener- 
able communion  into  what  seems  to  me  completer  har- 
mony with  modern  science,  modern  liberty,  and  modern 
aspirations. 

We  felt  the  solemn  charm  and  beauty  of  modern  Rome 
in  an  evening  drive  on  the  Pincian  hill,  where  a  thousand 


ROME  AND  NAPLES.  217 

carriages  brought  before  us,  not  only  the  princely  visitors 
attending  the  royal  marriage,  but  the  Roman  aristocracy 
and  the  representatives  of  the  diverse  population  of  the 
city.  The  mighty  dome  of  St.  Peter's  assumed  something 
of  its  proper  magnitude  and  majesty  when  seen  at  sunset 
from  the  Pincian  gardens.  But  old,  imperial  Rome  makes 
an  even  deeper  impression.  You  feel  that  there  were 
"  giants  in  those  days,"  monsters  though  some  of  them 
doubtless  were.  On  the  Appian  Way,  still  paved  with  the 
broad  flagstones  over  which  once  rolled  the  triumphal  cars 
of  the  Caesars,  in  the  presence  of  the  long,  ruined  aqueduct 
stretching  over  the  Campagna  like  the  bones  of  an  infinite 
serpent ;  in  the  Baths  of  Caracalla  and  Domitian ;  amid 
the  solid  brick-heaps  of  the  Palatine  Hill,  once  covered  with 
marble ;  beneath  the  arches  of  Constantine  and  Titus ; 
in  the  various  forums,  filled  with  broken  columns  and  other 
fragments  of  fallen  temples,  and  in  the  sublime  Pantheon, 
the  one  imperial  building  still  standing  in  much  of  its  origi- 
nal glory,  one  cannot  fail  to  summon  before  him  a  vision  of 
that  mighty  world  of  Rome  into  which  in  the  first  century 
a  few  obscure  men  from  Judea  entered  with  the  Christian 
Gospel. 

After  all,  it  is  the  Apostles,  and  especially  St.  Paul,  who, 
making  Rome  a  part  of  sacred  history  and  geography,  lend 
to  it  the  deepest  interest.  In  the  Mamertine  Prison,  dark, 
terrible,  which  St.  Paul  may  have  occupied ;  on  the  Pala- 
tine Hill,  where  the  apostolic  captive  lived  for  a  time  amid 
Caesar's  household  ;  on  the  Appian  Way,  by  which  he  made 
his  journey  to  the  Eternal  City ;  at  the  Ostian  Gate,  where 
the  Pyramid  of  Cestius  still  stands,  which  he  saw  on  the 
last  day  of  his  life  and  from  which  he  walked  to  his  execu- 
tion, —  I  have  felt  anew  that  it  was  good  to  follow  again  in 
the  footsteps  of  that  Apostle  who  knew  that  the  Gentiles 
would  ultimately  receive  his  message.  I  have  walked 
through  the  catacombs  of  St.  Calixtus,  where  the  early 
Church  hid  itself  and  buried  its  dead ;  this  evening  we 
stood  in  the  moonlight  within  the  Colosseum's  walls,  amid 


2l8  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

the  "  chief  relics  of  almighty  Rome,"  and  in  the  solemn 
shadows  felt  the  presence  and  moral  grandeur  of  the  early 
Christian  martyrs ;  and  I  have  lately  said  to  myself  more 
than  once,  "  Rome  is  the  proper  introduction  to  the  more 
ancient  and  sacred  world  of  Jerusalem,  toward  which  our 
faces  are  soon  to  be  set."  But  we  earnestly  and  affection- 
ately hope  to  see  the  city  of  the  Tiber  again,  on  account  of 
herself.  Are  not  our  hopes  likely  to  be  fulfilled?  This 
morning  we  piously  flung  our  copper  coins  into  the  Trevi 
fountain. 

Our  ride  from  Rome  to  Naples  lasted  from  five  in  the 
evening  till  near  midnight.  Climbing  the  heights  between 
the  Alban  and  Sabine  mountains,  we  had  our  final  view,  in 
the  crimson  twilight,  of  the  Campagna.  There  is  not  much 
of  history,  comparatively  speaking,  that  thrusts  itself  upon 
you  in  this  southward  journey  to  the  Bay  of  Naples.  The 
immense  Benedictine  monastery  at  Casino  has  become  a 
national  school.  Aquino  summons  before  you  the  tall  and 
saintly  shadow  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  Caserta,  the  Versailles 
of  Naples,  showed  us  its  royal  palace  as  we  rushed  by  in 
the  moonlight.  But  our  eyes  awaited  two  spectacles, 
grander  than  any  relics  of  human  achievement,  —  the  broad 
bay  which  to  La  Signora  was  the  first  view  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  the  great  fiery  sides  of  that  burning  mountain 
under  whose  fateful  shadow  happy-hearted  Naples  was 
quietly  sleeping. 

Our  hotel,  the  Continental,  looks  out  immediately  upon 
the  Vesuvian  Bay.  Right  before  us,  as  we  opened  our 
windows  in  the  morning,  was  the  long  rim  of  the  harbor, 
out  of  which,  two  hundred  feet  away,  rose  the  massive 
Castello  del  Ovo,  or  Egg  Castle.  Our  first  joy  in  Naples, 
after  receiving  and  devouring  the  American  mail,  was  a 
visit  to  the  celebrated  aquarium  in  the  centre  of  a  beautiful 
pleasure-ground  called  the  Villa  Nazionale.  It  belongs  to 
the  zoological  station,  which  was  established  by  a  German 
naturalist  for  the  thorough  study  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of 
the  Mediterranean.     It  is  now  supported  by  contributions 


ROME  AND  NAPLES.  219 

from  nearly  all  the  civilized  governments,  including  our 
own.  Naturalists  are  sent  here  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
unequalled  opportunities  of  the  Institution,  and  many  uni- 
versities have  their  Prix  de  Naples,  the  winning  of  which  by 
some  young  naturalist  will  give  him  a  year's  study  at  this 
famous  marine  station. 

The  aquarium  itself  is  the  finest  in  the  world,  and  La 
Signora  declared  that  it  was  the  only  thing  in  Europe  thus 
far  discovered  that  surpassed  the  exhibits  at  the  Columbian 
Fair.  The  cool,  translucent  depths  of  these  great  water- tanks 
are  beautiful  with  the  most  interesting  and  various  types  of 
marine  life.  One  can  almost  see  the  transition  from  the 
highest  vegetable  to  the  lowest  animal  forms.  The  rich  or 
delicate  colorings  of  some  of  these  creatures  make  the  can- 
vases of  even  the  Italian  masters  look  cheaply  artificial. 
Here  we  stared  wonderingly  at  the  miracle  of  life,  as  it  ap- 
pears in  living  and  various  colored  corals,  in  the  strangest- 
looking  —  shall  I  say  plants  or  animals  ?  —  rising  and 
branching  out  into  the  most  delicate  palm-like  forms,  in 
sea-anemones,  in  soft  pearl-colored  and  winged  fish,  rain- 
bow-striped, and  as  fragile  in  appearance  as  the  frailest 
nautilus.  Other  kinds  of  life  abound,  not  so  attractive, 
although  there  is  a  fascination  in  gigantic  lobsters,  hor- 
rible crabs,  and  great  white  fiat  fish  that  look  like 
caricatures  of  the  finny  tribe  ;  in  electric  rays,  which  we 
were  permitted  to  touch,  and  even  in  the  octopus.  Of 
this  latter  monster  there  were  five  specimens,  and  we  saw 
the  attendant  drop  a  live  crab  into  the  tank  to  show  us  how 
the  terrible  creature  enjoys  his  breakfast.  How  would  the 
Buddhist  theory  that  it  is  wrong  ever  to  take  away  life 
which  one  cannot  replace,  survive,  if  the  gentle  Dharmapala 
found  himself  in  the  clutches  of  this  marine  terror? 

For  nearly  three  thousand  years  men  have  lived  and 
died  in  Naples.  The  name  Neapolis  is  Greek,  and  the 
New  City,  as  it  was  called  so  many  hundreds  of  years  ago, 
is  passing  through  the  processes  of  modern  transformation. 
The  streets  through  which  we  drove  were  broad,  clean,  and 


220  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

well-lighted.     A  university  with  four  thousand  students  is 
here,  and  a  rich  and  highly  cultivated  aristocracy.     But  the 
number  of  really  well-to-do  people  in  Naples,  as  in  Rome 
and  Florence,  to  an  American  seems  small.     Two  or  three 
families  —  such  is  the  ambition  to  drive  —  sometimes  com- 
bine to  purchase  a  stylish  coach,  and  they  take  turns  in 
appearing  on  the  streets  with  a  gorgeous  coachman  and  foot- 
man.     But  the  market-places  are  as  full  of  picturesque  rags 
as  ever.     Beggars  abound,  and  the  dirt  which  is  kept  from 
the  pavements  is  found  on  the  faces  of  the  children.     Cab- 
drivers  are  a  pestilence,  though  the  rates,   either  by  the 
course  or  by  the  hour,  are  low  enough.     While  you   are 
gazing  pensively  out  over  the  placid  bay  to  the  rocky  Isle 
of  Capri,  with  its  dark  memories  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius, 
or  are  looking  up  to   the  Castle  of  St.  Elmo,  which  domi- 
nates the  town,  or  are  dreaming  of  Virgil  as  you  turn  your 
eyes  toward   the   Crotto   of  Posilipo,  where  the   Mantuan 
bard   wrote    his   ./Eneid,    and    where    Petrarch    planted    a 
laurel  by  the  poet's  tomb,  the  rascally  and  "  cantankerous  " 
cab-driver  is  screaming  in  broken  French  some  infamous 
proposition  to  give  you  a  drive  to  Vesuvius  or  Pompeii  for 
some  diabolical  price  ! 

About  noon  the  steam-yacht  "  Midnight  Sun  "  anchored 
in  the  Bay  of  Naples,  having  made  the  voyage  from  Mar- 
seilles. Driving  with  our  trunks  and  hand-luggage  to  the 
docks  by  the  custom-house,  I  soon  made  a  bargain  with  a 
venerable  seaman  to  transfer  us  in  his  boat  to  the  steamer. 
For  three  lire,  or  francs,  the  ancient  mariner  promised  to 
put  us  and  ours  on  shipboard.  But  his  assistants  extracted 
a  few  coppers  beyond  this  sum  before  we  and  our  luggage 
found  ourselves  on  deck.  Here  we  caught  our  first  sight  of 
our  Mediterranean  companions,  —  a  pleasant  and  good- 
natured  company  of  people,  with  whom  we  knew  we  should 
be  at  home.  A  comfortable  state-room  and  seats  beside 
Mr.  Lunn  at  the  table  had  been  reserved  for  us,  and  hence- 
forth I  felt  that  I  had  no  further  responsibilities,  no  more 
plans  to  make,  time-tables  to  examine,  tickets  to  purchase, 


ROME   AND   NAPLES.  221 

bargains  to  drive,  bills  to  pay.  We  were  to  be  "  personally 
conducted."  A  steam-launch  took  us  to  the  shore  ;  we 
drove  to  the  station,  entered  railway-carriages  marked 
"  Midnight  Sun,"  and  were  soon  on  the  way  to  Pompeii. 
On  arriving  there,  we  were  piloted  through  bands  of  beg- 
gars to  the  gateway  of  the  ruined  city ;  and  soon,  divided 
into  smaller  parties,  we  began  our  explorations  under  com- 
petent guides. 

For  three  hours  we  wandered  leisurely  through  the  streets, 
private  houses,  markets,  temples,  forum,  theatres,  baths,  and 
villas  of  the  ancient  city.  Excavations  have  been  going  on 
for  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  half  a  century 
more  may  be  required  to  complete  the  unearthing  of  Pom- 
peii. Remarkable  progress  has  been  made  since  I  was 
here.  I  am  more  than  ever  surprised  at  the  elegance  and 
even  luxury  which  prevailed  in  the  first  century  in  this  city 
of  twenty-five  thousand  souls.  The  great  catastrophe  of  the 
year  79  was  preceded  by  an  earthquake,  sixteen  years 
earlier,  which  did  for  Pompeii  what  the  fire  of  1871  did  for 
Chicago,  giving  the  citizens  an  opportunity  of  building  more 
splendidly.  Most  of  my  readers  are  familiar  with  the  de- 
tails of  the  final  destruction.  Vesuvius  first  covered  the 
town  with  three  feet  of  ashes,  and  then  dropped  over  it 
red-hot  pumice  stones  to  the  depth  of  seven  feet.  New 
showers  and  subsequent  eruptions  covered  the  city  to  the 
depth  of  nearly  twenty  feet.  This  sort  of  destruction  has 
preserved  for  us  one  complete  specimen  of  the  life  of  an- 
tiquity, in  which  there  were  many  things  to  admire.  The 
streets,  though  usually  narrow,  were  well  paved,  and  the 
pavements  endured  so  long  that  the  chariot  wheels  wore 
deep  ruts  into  the  stones.  Large  blocks  at  the  crossings 
enabled  the  Pompeiian  ladies  to  go  to  the  other  side  with- 
out soiling  their  sandals  or  calling  in  the  aid  of  a  policeman. 
The  signs  over  the  shops  were  much  more  modest  than 
those  in  England  and  America.  Some  of  the  wine-jars 
which  we  saw  were  as  large  and  cool  as  a  small  cellar. 
Many  of  the  richest  treasures  of  the  old  city  are  now  placed 


222  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

in  the  great  national  museum  of  Naples,  which  contains  also 
the  famous  Farnese  Hercules  and  the  Farnese  Bull. 

To  me  the  streets  and  houses  of  the  old  city  are  more 
interesting  than  the  treasures  which  have  been  carried  off. 
Everything  here  is  well  preserved  and  well  protected.  The 
old  life  was  full  of  beauty,  and  the  abominations  are  not 
numerous.  From  a  mound  on  the  edge  of  the  excavated 
city  a  sublime  view  is  given  of  this  whole  region ;  the  um- 
brella-pines, the  olives,  the  vineyards,  the  villages,  the  bay 
with  its  islands,  the  city,  and  the  great  smoking  top  of  the 
volcano.  Fortunately  for  the  comfort  of  travellers  and  their 
deliverance  from  pestiferous  sharpers,  compared  with  whom 
the  old  Niagara  Falls  hackmen  were  saints,  Messrs.  Thomas 
Cook  and  Son  now  convey  travellers  from  Naples  to  the  cone 
of  Vesuvius,  having  constructed  for  a  part  of  the  ascent  and 
descent  a  wire-rope  railway.  I  remember  what  it  was  in 
the  old  days  to  climb  to  the  top  of  the  volcano.  Still  it 
was  great  sport  to  run  down  the  ash-covered  cone,  even 
though  you  were  chased  by  beggars  and  bargainers  from  the 
edge  of  the  crater  to  the  suburbs  of  Naples.  Then  these 
old  experiences  furnished  you  a  theodicy  which  fairly  well 
justified  the  fiery  eruptions  ! 

As  we  waited  for  our  return  train  in  the  beautiful  twilight, 
the  beggars  renewed  their  attacks,  and,  more  persuasive 
still,  an  old  peasant  with  his  violin  and  two  tiny  children, 
gave  us  a  very  noisy  concert.  The  little  boy  and  girl  had, 
if  not  throats  of  nightingales,  throats  of  brass,  and  their 
repertoire  was  "  simply  great."  What  would  Italy  be  to 
the  English-speaking  traveller  if  mendicancy  and  out-door 
music  were  banished  ?  It  would  still  be  the  land  of  poetry 
and  romance,  of  the  "vine-clad  hill  and  conquering  spear," 
the  land  of  love  and  sunshine,  of  art  and  passion,  of 
splendor  and  heroism,  of  great  hopes  and  still  grander 
memories. 

It  was  two  hours  after  our  return  before  the  "  Midnight 
Sun  "  set  sail.  The  evening  was  brilliant,  and  the  nearly  full 
moon  cast  her  silvery  waves  over  the  spacious  Neapolitan 


ROME   AND   NAPLES.  223 

Bay.  Around  the  shores,  from  the  masts  of  a  hundred 
ships,  from  the  city  climbing  upward  to  the  hills,  and  from 
a  score  of  neighboring  villages,  twinkled  innumerable  lights. 
Back  of  all  this  illumination  rose  the  mountainous  amphithe- 
atre, while  the  fiery  summit  of  volcanic  Vesuvius  gave  a  touch 
of  solemn  terror  to  the  wondrous  scene.  Boats  crowded 
with  Neapolitan  traffickers  clung  to  the  side  of  the  ship,  and 
kept  up  a  comical  din.  Canes,  peaches,  pears,  grapes, 
straw-hats,  photographs,  coral  necklaces,  all  sorts  of  lava- 
ware,  souvenirs,  and  a  great  variety  of  jewelry  were  vo- 
ciferously offered  for  sale  by  these  men  and  women,  who 
held  candles  over  their  treasures  to  show  us  their  dazzling 
quality.  Trinkets  offered  for  five  shillings,  which  was 
"  much  less  than  the  price  in  the  shops,"  were  gladly  dis- 
posed of  for  one  shilling. 

The  next  morning  the  sea  was  as  placid  and  bright  as 
ever,  and  we  found  ourselves  in  the  neighborhood  of  another 
volcano,  Stromboli.  In  a  few  hours  both  the  Italian  and 
Sicilian  shores  came  in  sight  and  drew  nearer  to  each  other, 
and  amid  much  admiration  of  the  beautiful  colors  on  these 
rocky  coasts  we  passed  through  the  straits  of  Messina  with 
no  apparent  peril  either  from  Charybdis  on  the  one  hand  or 
from  Scylla  on  the  other.  The  sirens  we  carried  with  us  in 
the  boat.  A  third  volcano,  nothing  less  noteworthy  than 
the  height  of  Etna,  came  into  distant  view  during  the  after- 
noon ;  but  I  confess  to  have  been  peacefully  sleeping  at  the 
time,  so  that  I  gained  no  new  vision  of  the  great  mountain 
which  I  once  climbed.  Last  night  we  crossed  the  Adriatic, 
and  early  this  forenoon  we  came  in  sight  of  the  islands 
of  Cephalonia  and  Zante.  Three  years  ago  the  maritime 
canal  across  the  isthmus  of  Corinth,  begun  in  Roman  im- 
perial times,  was  completed.  There  is  now  no  need  of 
"  fetching  a  compass  "  around  the  Peloponnesus  in  order  to 
reach  Athens.  The  island  of  Pelops  is  at  last  an  island, 
and  our  journey  is  shortened  by  two  hundred  and  two  miles. 
The  voyage  between  Cephalonia  and  Zante  has  been  a 
dream  of  peace,  brightness,  and  beauty  realized.     From  the 


224  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

ship  these  rocky  island-hills  look  barren,  and  one  is  aston- 
ished that  together  these  two  islands  support  a  population 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand.  Immediately  north- 
east of  Cephalonia  is  seen  rocky,  irregular  Ithaca,  most 
famous  of  Grecian  isles.  It  is  impossible  to  sail  over  the 
"  wine-colored  deep,"  which  once  rippled  about  the  prow  of 
Ulysses,  without  thoughts  of  Homer.  How  could  he  have 
been  always  blind,  and  sung  so  frequently  of  the  colored 
sea  ?  Zante,  of  course,  brought  to  mind  the  eloquent  and 
broad-minded  Archbishop  who  came  to  the  Exposition  in 
1893,  and  who,  after  completing  his  voyage  around  the 
world,  died  in  his  own  beloved  island,  a  few  days  after  his 
return.  We  have  already  sailed  through  the  Gulf  of  Patras, 
on  the  north  shore  of  which  is  Mesolonghi,  where  Marco 
Bozzaris  died  in  battle  and  Lord  Byron  of  a  fever. 

Over  what  width  of  waters  can  one  glide  that  so  stirs  up 
the  imagination  !  We  are  on  the  sea  which  was  the  centre 
of  the  ancient  empires  —  Phoenicia,  Egypt,  Carthage, 
Greece,  Rome  —  and  is  now  strewn  with  their  wrecks.  It  is 
the  sea  over  which  the  Tyrians  sailed  beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  to  the  coasts  of  Britain  ;  the  sea  which  bore  up  the 
fleets  of  Caesar  and  Augustus,  which  carried  Paul  on  his 
stormy  voyage  to  Italy,  and  which  first  tried  the  daring  of 
young  Columbus.  Some  of  the  chief  naval  battles  of  his- 
tory —  Salamis,  Actium,  Lepanto,  Aboukir  —  have  been 
fought  on  Mediterranean  waves.  Moslem  and  Christian,  the 
crescent  and  the  cross,  have  clashed  against  each  other 
over  the  surface  of  this  land-locked  world  of  waters.  It  is 
now  the  highway  of  commerce  to  Egypt  and  farthest  Ind, 
and  the  common  meeting-place  of  Africa,  Asia,  and  Europe. 
It  is  to  ancient  history  what  the  Atlantic  is  to  modern 
history  and  what  the  Pacific  may  be  to  the  millennium. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

ATHENS. 

A  FTER  a  pleasant  voyage  we  anchored  near  the  en- 
*■  trance  to*  the  new  Corinth  Canal,  and  found  ourselves 
in  the  midst  of  a  most  beautiful  and  interesting  scene.  Far 
to  the  north  and  west  were  the  peaks  of  Parnassus  and 
Cithaeron.  Near  by,  on  the  isthmus,  was  the  little  town  of 
new  Corinth,  and  back  of  it,  and  of  the  site  of  the  old  city, 
rose  the  lofty  and  very  commanding  height  of  Acro-Co- 
rinthus.  The  opulent  and  luxurious  and  corrupt  Corinth  of 
antiquity  has  been  swept  away.  But  a  company  of  Chris- 
tians of  the  first  century,  living  in  the  midst  of  that  splendid 
luxury,  once  received  a  letter  from  a  Roman  citizen  of 
Jewish  blood,  who  had  formerly  preached  to  them  the 
Gospel.  It  was  they  who  first  read  from  that  Epistle  these 
words  :  "  And  now  abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three  ; 
but  the  greatest  of  these  is  love."  In  that  letter  they  also 
read,  "  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I 
also  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins,  according 
to  the  Scriptures  ;  and  that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose 
again,  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures."  My 
mind  was  busy  building  in  imagination  the  vanished  town, 
picturing  the  eager  company  of  humble  disciples  (not  many 
mighty  were  called),  and  trying  to  summon  before  me  the 
scene,  perhaps  in  the  house  of  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  when, 
in  their  hearing,  was  read  Paul's  own  account  of  his  Co- 
rinthian ministry  :  "  I  determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  you  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  The 
letter  which  these  humble  men  and  women  held  in  their 
hands   has  become   a  part  of  the  world's  sacred  literature. 


226  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

If  the  original  autograph  could  now  be  found,  it  would  be 
perhaps  the  choicest  relic  on  the  earth.  But  the  written 
words,  in  one  form  or  another,  have  outlasted  the  marts  and 
temples  of  the  proud  commercial  metropolis  of  Greece. 

The  passengers  of  the  "  Midnight  Sun  "  were  early  on  deck 
to  watch  the  Greek  tug  as  it  pulled  our  big  steamer  three 
miles  and  a  half  through  the  Corinth  canal.  This  engineer- 
ing work,  one  hundred  feet  wide  and  of  the  length  just 
mentioned,  seems  small  beside  Chicago's  drainage  channel, 
but  most  of  the  excavation  is  deeper.  We  looked  up  be- 
tween walls  of  smooth  yellow  dirt  and  sandstone  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  feet.  Our  Greek  pilot  and  the  Greek  tug 
did  not  manage  their  task  very  skilfully.  Four  or  five  times 
our  big  iron  ship  bumped  heavily  against  the  stone  sides  of 
the  canal,  and  once  we  knocked  off  a  telegraph  wire.  All 
of  our  huge  rope  fenders  were  torn  out  of  the  sailors'  hands, 
and  finally  our  good  captain,  who  could  have  managed  the 
whole  affair  better  alone,  began  to  berate  the  pilot,  saying, 
"  I  can't  speak  Greek,  but  I  know  how  she  ought  to  go." 
At  last,  turning  white,  he  shouted  to  the  officer  who  stood 

in  the  prow,  "  Mr.  Mossman,  make  that fool  go  to  the 

windward  ! "     Many   of  the   passengers  were    thankful   to 
have  their  own  feelings  so  forcibly  expressed. 

After  we  had  passed  through  the  canal,  we  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  site  of  the  old  Isthmian  games  and  also  of 
the  port  of  Cenchrea.  In  that  port  once  lived  a  friend  and 
helper  of  the  great  Apostle,  and  from  it,  about  eighteen 
hundred  and  forty  years  ago,  she  set  sail  for  Italy,  having 
in  her  possession  what  some  of  the  most  illustrious  modern 
philosophers  have  deemed  the  grandest  of  human  composi- 
tions. In  her  box,  bundle,  or  travelling-bag,  or  somewhere 
on  her  person,  Phcebe  carried  Paul's  letter  to  the  Romans. 
If  her  ship  had  been  lost  at  sea,  it  appears  possible  that 
the  history  of  Christendom  might  have  been  changed. 
Think  of  Martin  Luther  without  his  most  effective  weapons  ! 
Think  of  the  Christian  Church  never  able  to  read,  "  There 
is   therefore  now  no  condemnation  to    them  who   are    in 


ATHENS.  227 

Christ  Jesus."  Only  a  few  marble  remnants  of  the  ancient 
life  of  these  Greek  shores  now  remain ;  but  that  letter 
which  the  good  woman  with  the  sun-bright  name  once 
carried  across  these  sun- bright  waters  abides,  a  living  force, 
a  part  of  that  Word  of  the  Lord  that  endureth  forever. 

We  are  now  in  the  harbor  of  Piraeus.  Three  days 
have  been  given  to  the  study  of  things  on  shore.  Our 
luncheons  have  been  at  the  Hotel  de  Grande  Bretagne,  and 
our  nights  have  been  spent  on  the  steamer.  There  are 
Greek,  French,  Russian,  and  British  warships  in  the  harbor, 
and  last  evening  the  British  midshipmen  came  over  to 
dance  on  deck  with  some  of  our  young  ladies.  The 
steam-launch  and  boats  of  the  "  Midnight  Sun  "  have  been  at 
our  service,  and  tickets  have  been  furnished  every  day  for 
the  three-mile  railroad  ride  to  Athens.  I  suppose  that 
there  are  many  persons  to  whom  Athens  would  mean  but 
little.  To  me,  from  boyhood,  it  has  been  a  magic  name, 
and  its  honor  and  glory  have  been  almost  as  dear  to  me 
as  to  those  who  fought  at  Marathon,  or  who  heard  the 
dramas  of  ^Eschylus  and  Aristophanes,  or  proudly  saw  the 
quarries  of  Attica  exalted  and  idealized  into  the  Parthe- 
non. Did  I  not  in  college  days  champion  the  claim  of 
Athens  to  the  foremost  place  of  all  cities  in  the  annals  of 
time?  And  did  I  not  fight  the  battles  of  that  "fierce 
democracy  "  against  aristocratic  and  stupid  Sparta  on  the 
one  hand,  and  despotic  Macedon  on  the  other?  To  me 
Athens  was  indeed  "  the  eye  of  Greece,  mother  of  arts  and 
eloquence."  Her  brief  supremacy  was,  in  truth,  the  golden 
age  of  the  ancient  world. 

So  little  is  left  of  her  former  glory  in  visible  monuments 
that  one  must  carry  much  to  Athens  in  the  way  of  knowl- 
edge, appreciation,  or  sentiment,  or  he  may  carry  little 
away.  Attica,  and  indeed  all  Greece,  seems  very  barren. 
Travellers,  especially  those  coming  from  well-watered,  green, 
and  fruitful  Italy,  are  surprised  to  see  the  stony  and 
desolate  hills,  the  dried-up  water-courses  and  the  dusty 
fields.    The  "  whispering  stream  "  of  the  Ilissus,  which  rolls 


228  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

in  Milton's  verse,  is  as  dry  as  any  canyon  in  Arizona  or  any 
wady  of  Palestine.  But  few  of  the  hills  seem  to  have  any 
trees  on  them.  The  Turk  blasted  and  burned  the  land  be- 
fore he  left  it.  He  has  been  the  great  assassin  of  all  earthly 
beauty  and  fertility,  and  Greece  drank  of  his  cruelty  to  the 
bitter  dregs.  Athens  has  been  the  spoil,  as  Macaulay  once 
wrote,  of  "  Romans,  Turks,  and  Scotchmen."  But  of  these, 
only  the  Turks  had  any  lust  of  destruction  for  its  own  sake. 
Rome  adorned  her  great  capital  with  the  plundered  products 
of  Grecian  chisels,  and  Lord  Elgin's  rich  spoil  of  Phidian 
marbles  is  sacredly  treasured  in  the  British  Museum,  where 
Turkish  hammers  cannot  demolish  nor  Ottoman  thieves 
break  through  and  steal.  These  finest  treasures  of  art  are 
but  the  fragments  of  statues  which  the  Turk  had  wantonly 
mutilated.  And  before  he  was  driven  out  of  Greece  he 
burned  all  the  forests  that  he  could  destroy. 

Though  the  region  about  Athens  appears  desolate,  sixty 
years  of  Greek  independence  have  raised  the  old  town  from 
a  population  of  six  thousand  to  a  population  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand.  The  port  of  Athens,  whose  old  name, 
the  Piraeus,  had  been  lost  under  Turkish  rule,  now  numbers 
nearly  forty  thousand  inhabitants,  while  the  harbor  is  alive 
with  vessels.  The  Greek  sky  remains  unchanged.  The 
violet  ether  of  Athens  is  as  beautiful  as  when  Sophocles  and 
Praxiteles  "  hid  beauty  safe  from  death  in  words  or  stone." 
Then  the  Greek  hills,  with  all  their  barrenness,  are  bathed 
in  the  most  beautiful  hues.  Furthermore,  there  are  "  sunny 
spots  of  greenery"  which  the  Greek  farmer  has  scattered 
over  the  Attic  plain.  The  olive  grove,  which  was  "  Plato's 
retirement,"  is  wide  and  flourishing  on  the  edge  of  the  city. 
Along  the  streets  of  Athens  we  found  pepper-trees,  like 
those  of  California.  The  vineyards,  aided  by  irrigation, 
produce  an  abundance  of  grapes,  and  the  huge  clusters 
which  we  saw  in  the  Athenian  markets  were  like  unto  the 
grapes  of  Eshcol.  On  the  dusty  drive  to  Eleusis  were  sev- 
eral groves  of  feathery  pines,  and  in  some  of  the  gardens 
of  Athens  the  roses  were  as  beautiful  as  in  the  gardens  of 


ATHENS.  229 

Gottingen  last  June.  I  have  rarely  seen  finer  bouquets 
than  those  with  which  friends  in  Athens  have  recently 
decked  our  tables.  I  feel  like  amending  Byron  and 
saying,  "  'T  is  Greece,  and  lovely  Greece  once  more." 

Among  the  interesting  and  amusing  sights  of  Attica  have 
been  droves  of  meek  turkeys  driven  like  sheep ;  Albanian 
peasants'  costumes,  the  voluminous  folds  of  white  cloth  about 
the  waist,  the  close-fitting  white  leggings,  ending  in  strangely 
decorated  shoes  ;  and  the  tiny  donkeys,  loaded  with  baskets 
piled  high  with  grapes  and  melons,  or  balanced  burdens  of 
wood,  brick,  or  stone.  The  Greeks  do  not  beg  like  the 
Italians,  and  the  cabmen  are  not  disposed  to  quarrel,  but 
cheating  in  the  exchange  of  currencies  is  common  enough. 
Every  one  who  knew  Greek  had  a  good  deal  of  amusement 
in  trying  to  make  out  the  meaning  of  the  signs,  or  to  read 
the  morning  newspaper  giving  telegraphic  reports  from 
London  and  accounts  of  the  arrival  of  the  "Midnight  Sun" 
in  the  sonorous  language  of  Demosthenes.  Sometimes  one 
looks  on  a  scene  so  foreign  to  his  usual  observations  that  he 
cannot  forget  it.  We  met  the  following  procession  not  far 
from  the  suburbs  of  Athens  :  First  came  a  donkey  ridden 
by  an  old  woman  carrying  a  goose  ;  then  came  a  donkey 
bearing  a  young  woman  carrying  a  baby ;  last  came  a  don- 
key ridden  by  a  little  son  of  Greece  carrying  a  very  big 
basket.  The  charm  of  the  whole  scene  was  the  perfect  un- 
consciousness and  self-possession  of  all. 

In  Athens  you  find  all  the  wares  of  every  store  in  the 
streets  or  windows,  and  most  of  the  occupations  are  carried 
on  in  front  of  the  shop.  This  makes  the  streets  a  series  of 
pictures,  and  in  some  respects  is  an  improvement  over  our 
habit  of  hiding  the  busy  workmen  away  in  ill-ventilated 
rooms.  But  what  distresses  one  most,  after  leaving  North- 
ern Europe,  is  to  observe  what  poor  care  people  generally 
take  of  their  persons,  faces,  and  clothes.  That  self-respect 
which  leads  to  constant  neatness  and  cleanliness,  nearly 
everywhere  observable  in  Germany  and  England,  is  pain- 
fully absent. 


230  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

One  of  the  chief  attractions  of  Athens  is  the  National 
Museum  of  Antiquities.  The  building  itself  is  of  Greek 
architecture,  adorned  with  marble  copies  of  famous  antique 
statues.  It  gave  me  a  strange,  pathetic  feeling  to  see  among 
them  the  Apollo  Belvedere.  Has  the  human  mind  already 
reached  its  limits  along  the  line  of  sculptural  art,  and  for  a 
beautiful  form  must  we  go  back  to  the  work  of  hands  that 
have  been  dead  for  more  than  two  thousand  years  ?  Of  the 
old  art  in  the  Museum  nothing  interested  me  so  much  as 
the  sculptural  reliefs  representing  parting  friends  clasping 
hands  for  the  last  time.  It  seemed  to  me  that  these  fathers, 
children,  wives,  husbands  of  the  old  Greek  world  were  un- 
consciously, in  their  tender  sorrow,  pleading  for  the  advent 
of  Him  who  "  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light."  Dr. 
Schliemann's  collection  of  cups,  amulets,  rings,  necklaces, 
golden  disks,  knives,  and  other  weapons  from  the  tombs  of 
Mycenae  have  great  artistic  and  archaeological  value,  though 
to  me  they  were  not  so  interesting  as  the  almost  numberless 
treasures  from  Tanagra,  terra-cotta  figurines  of  most  deli- 
cate beauty,  a  veritable  resurrection  of  ancient  Grecian  life. 
You  feel  the  nobility  of  the  old  Greek  religion  with  all  its 
idolatry  and  other  degradations  when  you  see  the  grand 
head  of  Minerva  in  this  Museum  and  the  equally  dignified 
and  even  more  attractive  head  of  Demeter  at  Eleusis.  It 
may  be  a  failure  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  earlier 
and  later  periods  of  Athenian  history,  to  confine  one's  ad- 
miration to  the  productions  of  the  time  of  Pericles,  but  it 
always  gave  me  a  pleasant  feeling  to  overhear  the  French- 
speaking  guides  say  of  this  or  that  thing  that  it  did  or  did 
not  belong  to  "la  belle  epoque." 

Ten  years  ago  the  great  temple  of  Eleusis  was  dug  out, 
and  is  now  one  of  the  most  beautiful  ruins  in  Greece. 
Some  of  the  fragments  are  colossal,  and  many  of  them  are 
very  lovely.  To  reach  Eleusis  we  drove  through  vineyards 
and  olive  groves,  and  then  along  the  ^Egean  shore,  over 
a  rocky  hill  and  across  the  plain  where,  according  to  the 
Greek  legend,  the  wheat,  golden  gift  from  Demeter,  first 


ATHENS.  231 

grew  on  earth.  Thirty  miles  from  the  quarries  of  Pentelicus, 
the  huge  marble  blocks  were  brought,  which  the  ancient 
faith  built  into  this  many- columned  fane.  To  it  went  the 
great  processions  from  Athens,  to  celebrate  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries,  of  which  we  know  little,  except  that  they  had  to 
do  with  the  worship  of  the  beneficent  forces  of  nature,  and 
that  those  who  shared  in  them  were  filled  with  kindlier 
thoughts  and  cheered  with  the  sweet  hope  of  immortality. 

On  one  marble  block  in  Eleusis  I  found  a  strange  Greek 
inscription,  "To  the  priest  of  Apollinarios,"  which  La  Si- 
gnora  photographed  with  me  standing  beside  it,  on  account 
of  my  devotion  to  a  famous  aqueous  beverage.  From  Eleusis 
we  had  a  fine  view  of  the  island  and  waters  of  Salamis,  and 
of  the  promontory  from  which  Xerxes  witnessed  the  fatal 
fight.  The  Persian  conqueror  had  already  burnt  Athens, 
and  the  women  and  children  of  the  Athenian  warriors  assem- 
bled at  Eleusis,  and  watched  the  battle  which  was  not  only 
to  decide  their  own  fate,  but  was  also  to  determine  "  whether 
Europe  should  remain  Europe."  There  are  few  spots  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth  where  the  remote  past  becomes 
such  a  strenuous  and  inspiring  force.  One  is  grateful  to 
the  English  poet  for  fashioning  such  words  as  these, — 

"  A  king  sat  on  the  rocky  brow 
Which  looks  o'er  sea-born  Salamis  ; 
And  ships,  by  thousands,  lay  below, 
And  men  in  nations  — all  were  his  ! 
He  counted  them  at  break  of  day, 
And  when  the  sun  set  where  were  they  ? " 

The  hordes  of  Asiatic  barbarism  had  been  smitten  by 
brave  Greek  hands,  one  of  which  —  that  of  yEschylus  —  a 
few  years  later  was  to  write  the  "  Prometheus  Bound."  In 
another  drama  yEschylus  describes  this  most  famous  of  all 
sea-fights.  The  old  strife  between  Asiatic  despotism  and 
western  freedom,  however,  is  not  yet  ended.  One  of  the 
foulest  and  bloodiest  scenes  of  the  great  drama  is  still  being 
enacted  by  the  crime-stained  and  polluted  waters  of  the 
Bosporus. 


232  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

It  gave  us  a  grateful  thrill  to  stand  by  the  statue  of  the 
English  poet  who  sang  and  died  for  Greek  liberty,  and  to 
read  upon  it  the  words  "  Hellas,  Byron."  We  explored 
the  great  Theatre  of  Dionysus,  at  the  foot  of  the  Acropolis, 
where  nearly  three  thousand  Athenians  sometimes  gathered 
to  hear  the  plays  of  .^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  or  Euripides. 
We  sat  in  the  chairs  of  marble,  still  unbroken,  inscribed 
with  the  names  of  Greek  priests,  and  wondered  at  the  rich 
sculptures,  representing  Bacchus  and  his  satyrs,  which  still 
adorn  the  front  of  the  stage.  One  of  my  companions  re- 
marked that  the  connection  between  the  theatre  and  the 
liquor  business  was  rather  ancient.  We  visited  the  Odeion 
of  Herodes  Atticus,  built  by  a  Roman  citizen  who  loved 
Athens,  and  the  gigantic  Corinthian  columns  of  the  Temple 
of  Olympian  Zeus.  Five  of  us  by  clasping  hands  were  just 
able  to  reach  around  one  of  these  columns. 

We  saw  also  the  Tower  of  Eolus  and  the  old  agora,  or 
market-place,  and  we  climbed  the  bare  rocky  eminence, 
the  Pnyx,  where  stood  the  Bema,  in  sight  of  the  Acropolis 
and  of  the  sea,  where  spoke  the  ancient  orators  "  whose 
resistless  eloquence  shook  the  arsenal  and  fulmined  over 
Greece  to  Macedon  and  Artaxerxes'  throne."  We  visited 
the  stadium,  now  being  rebuilt  in  marble,  to  accommodate 
fifty  thousand  people,  —  a  patriotic  Athenian  living  in  Alex- 
andria bearing  all  the  expense.  Here  on  the  site  of  the 
old  stadium  were  revived  last  spring  the  Olympic  games 
wherein  our  American  athletes  won  many  laurels.  The 
race  from  Marathon,  however,  on  Marathon  day,  was  won 
by  a  Greek  peasant,  who  became  the  hero  of  the  hour. 
Wine  merchants  offered  him  drink,  restaurants  food,  tailors 
clothing,  and  a  score  of  fathers  the  hands  of  their  daugh- 
ters. The  historic  runner  who  bore  from  the  field  of 
Marathon  the  news  of  the  great  victory  fell  dead  at  the 
end  of  his  course,  and  we  saw  his  face  in  marble  among 
the  treasures  of  the  Museum. 

But  I  must  close  this  chapter  by  telling  my  readers  some- 
thing of  the  gem  of  Athens,  the  Acropolis,  the  temple-cov- 


ATHENS.  233 

ered  hill  which  overlooks  the  city,  with  walls  reaching  back 
to  the  beginnings  of  Athenian  history,  venerable  even  in 
the  time  of  Themistocles.  After  we  had  climbed  the  steps 
up  to  the  level  of  the  highest  part  of  the  Propylsea,  we  saw 
a  good-natured  Englishwoman  of  large  proportions  toiling 
after  us,  and  heard  her  say  to  the  guide,  "  So  this  is  the 
Necropolis  ?  "  Her  funny  mistake  had,  after  all,  some  truth 
in  it,  for  what  is  that  summit  but  the  city  of  the  mighty 
dead?  Some  German  scholars  have  built  up  from  frag- 
ments the  little  temple  of  Nike  Apteros,  or  the  Wingless 
Victory,  replacing  with  terra-cotta  one  or  two  friezes  which 
Lord  Elgin  had  taken  away.  A  young  English  lady,  learn- 
ing of  what  had  been  done,  informed  us  that  she  was  dis- 
appointed in  the  Acropolis  because  so  much  of  it  was 
"imitation"  !  Think  of  the  ten  thousand  tons  of  carved 
marble  still  left  on  this  glorious  mount  stigmatized  as  "  imi- 
tation "  !  Alas  !  There  is  not  left  in  the  world  to-day 
enough  of  skill  and  enough  of  the  love  of  pure  beauty  to 
"  imitate  "  the  miracles  of  the  Periclean  age. 

The  marks  of  cannon-balls  from  the  various  sieges  which 
the  Acropolis  has  suffered  are  visible  on  the  Propylaea. 
But  what  nearly  destroyed  the  Parthenon  was  the  explosion 
of  the  Turkish  powder-magazine  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  Erechtheum,  the  lovely  Ionic  temple  to  the  north  of 
the  Doric  Parthenon,  was  used  by  a  Turkish  pasha  for  his 
harem.  Next  to  the  Turk's  wholesale  massacre  of  human 
beings  comes  in  infernal  brutality  his  destruction  of  the 
priceless  marbles  on  the  Athenian  hill.  It  almost  makes 
one  weep  to  see  the  ruin  that  has  been  wrought.  With 
knowledge  and  imagination  we  can  reconstruct  these  broken 
fanes,  set  up  once  more  the  fallen  columns,  the  metopes, 
the  triglyphs,  the  friezes,  the  Phidian  statues  in  the 
tympanum,  and  the  gold  and  ivory  statue  of  Pallas-Athene 
that  stood  in  the  central  shrine,  and  even  dream  how  all 
this  beauty  was  enhanced  by  splendid  coloring,  which  the 
timid  art  of  to-day  would  not  dare  to  use.  But  oh  that 
the  resources  of  Greece  were   adequate  to  the  actual  re- 


234  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

construction  of  what,  in  point  of  classic  beauty,  was  the 
supreme  achievement  of  the  ancient  world  !  Perhaps  gener- 
ous England  will  one  day  surrender  to  Athens  the  Elgin 
marbles,  as  she  gave  back  to  France  the  body  of  Napoleon. 
In  the  deep  blue  ether  the  shattered  wonder  of  Pericles, 
Praxiteles,  and  Phidias  still  shines  like  a  resplendent  jewel. 
I  have  never  been  surprised  by  the  extravagance  of  Emer- 
son's lines,  — 

"  Earth  proudly  wears  the  Parthenon 
As  the  best  gem  upon  her  zone." 

God  gave  to  the  Athenians,  as  to  no  others  who  have 
ever  lived,  the  power  to  evoke  deathless  beauty  out  of 
stone.  It  was  a  delight  to  see  that  our  companions,  some 
of  whom  had  not  had  any  special  preparation  to  appreciate 
classic  art,  were  generally  filled  with  a  sense  that  something 
matchlessly  beautiful  had  once  covered  this  hill-top.  But 
most  of  us  felt  that  something  greater  and  more  important 
to  man's  highest  welfare  had  found  expression  on  the  lower 
neighboring  summit  of  the  Areopagus.  We  stood  on  Mars 
Hill  almost  in  awe.  People  became  silent.  We  felt  that 
the  Apostle  Paul  was  near  us,  and  we  were  glad  to  survey 
the  sea  and  sky  and  rocks  and  temples  which  he  looked 
upon  as  he  stood  there  and  spoke  the  wisest  and  greatest 
words  which  the  city  of  Socrates  and  Plato  ever  heard. 
Some  one  asked  for  a  New  Testament,  that  Paul's  address 
might  be  again  spoken.  As  no  copy  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  was  forthcoming,  I  was  asked  to  repeat  Paul's  ser- 
mon ;  and  this  fortunately  I  was  able  to  do.  Heads  were 
uncovered  as  I  began  with  the  courteous  introduction,  "  Ye 
men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  very 
religious,"  and  ended  with,  "whereof  He  hath  given  wit- 
ness unto  all  men,  in  that  He  hath  raised  Him  from  the 
dead." 

I  ventured  to  say  that  Paul's  address  was  largely  shaped 
by  what  he  saw  before  him  and  around  him.  To  the  left  is 
the  Theseium,  the  temple  and  tomb  of  Theseus,  still  in  good 
preservation.     Right  above  the  preacher,  as  above  us,  was 


ATHENS.  235 

the  glory  of  the  Acropolis,  from  which,  in  Paul's  time,  rose 
the  great  statue  of  Pallas  Athene,  with  her  spear  and  graven 
shield.  Paul  preached  a  God  whom  Athens  ignorantly  wor- 
shipped, a  God  who  is  Maker  and  Lord  of  all  things,  and 
therefore  does  not  confine  himself  to  "  temples  made  with 
hands  "  and  is  not  "  worshipped  with  men's  hands."  After 
proclaiming  a  God  who  had  made  of  one  blood  all  nations, 
a  God  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,  and 
after  quoting  with  approval  from  a  Pagan  poet,  the  Apostle 
declares  that  since  men  are  the  offspring  of  God  they  should 
not  think  of  the  Godhead  as  "  like  unto  gold  or  silver  or 
stone  graven  by  art  and  man's  device."  We  had  seen  on 
the  Acropolis  where  the  gold  and  ivory  statue  of  Pallas  had 
stood,  and  we  had  seen  a  thousand  marbles,  from  the  neigh- 
boring quarries,  beautifully  graven  by  art  and  skilfully 
shaped  by  the  devices  of  the  master- sculptors  of  Greece. 

Three  years  ago  the  Archbishop  of  Zante  sat  one  evening 
in  my  house,  and  we  invited  him  to  pronounce  in  Greek 
Paul's  oration  on  Mars  Hill,  which  he  did  with  great  dignity 
and  eloquence.  He  told  us  that  some  English  people  in 
Athens  whom  he  met  on  the  Areopagus  once  made  of  him 
a  similar  request.  The  audience  and  the  scenes  and  the 
recollection  of  the  brave  Apostle  so  inspired  him  that  he 
gave  the  address  with  the  deepest  feeling,  tears  coming  to 
his  own  eyes  and  to  the  eyes  of  his  hearers.  As  I  told  this 
story  this  afternoon,  our  dragoman  and  interpreter  was 
deeply  interested,  and  said  :  "  I  knew  the  Archbishop  of 
Zante.  I  have  often  seen  him  in  Athens.  He  was  a  splen- 
did and  big-hearted  man."  He  spoke  of  his  death  with 
much  regret.  I  am  persuaded  that  multitudes  of  Chris- 
tians in  America,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  have  come 
into  more  appreciative  relations  with  the  old  Greek  Church 
on  account  of  the  actions  and  words  of  Archbishop  Latas 
in  America. 

The  Acropolis  was  in  some  respects  the  centre  of  Athe- 
nian life,  and  the  historian  Freeman  has  named  it  "the  spot 
where  we   may  fairly  say  that  the  political  history  of  the 


2  $6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

world  begins."  Athens  was  the  school  of  Rome,  and  her 
philosophy  furnished  the  types  into  which  the  new  Christian 
doctrine  was  moulded.  It  is  a  long  way  back  into  the  story 
of  our  race  that  we  can  look  from  this  height  of  vision, 
standing  amid  the  marbles  which  time  has  turned  to  a 
golden  hue.  But  the  actual  view  from  the  summit  at  the 
close  of  a  perfect  day  is  memorable,  if  not  describable. 
The  sky  spreads  its  violet  roof  over  all.  Colors  of  strange 
beauty  linger  on  the  distant  hills,  like  those  of  the  Isle  of 
Salamis.  The  surface  of  the  sea  is  a  pink  pavement.  Near 
by  to  the  east  is  "the  flowery  hill,  Ilymettus,  where  the 
sound  of  bees'  industrious  murmur  oft  invites  to  studious 
musing."  Farther  to  the  left  is  the  sharp  point  of  Lyka- 
bettos,  crowned  with  a  Greek  chapel,  while  near  its  foot 
is  the  home  of  the  American  Classical  School.  Beyond  is 
Pentelicus,  with  its  treasures  of  marble.  At  our  feet  lies 
the  Athens  of  to-day,  where  such  buildings  stand  out  as  the 
king's  palace,  the  university,  a  gem  of  Greek  art,  and  the 
Greek  cathedral,  now  decorated  with  flags  in  honor  of 
the  new  archbishop.  When  I  inquired  yesterday  for  the 
metropolitan  Ghermanos,  intending  to  call  upon  this  large- 
minded  man,  with  whom  I  had  had  some  pleasant  corre- 
spondence, I  learned  with  sorrow  of  his  recent  death. 

The  high  hill  nearest  to  the  Acropolis  on  the  west  is 
named  from  the  muses,  and  on  its  top  is  the  reconstructed 
monument  to  Philopappus,  the  Phrygian  friend  of  Athens. 
Near  the  base  of  the  hill  are  seen  the  openings  of  what  is 
called  the  prison  of  Socrates.  As  you  look  around  from 
this  "  specular  mount,"  you  are  conscious  that  one  sight 
which  you  would  be  glad  to  witness  is  withheld  from  you. 

"  The  mountains  look  on  Marathon, 
And  Marathon  looks  on  the  sea  ; " 

but  from  the  Acropolis  only  the  "  inner  eye  "  looks  upon  that 
immortal  plain.  Right  below  us,  however,  and  to  the  west, 
rises  the  Areopagus,  where  St.  Paul  preached  both  natural  and 
revealed  theology  in  the  spirit  of  the  most  comprehensive 


ATHENS.  22,7 

love.  Among  those  who  clave  to  him  after  the  sermon  was 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  and  to-day  we  visited  a  church 
bearing  the  name  of  this  Athenian  believer,  perhaps  the 
only  man  in  St.  Paul's  Athens  whose  name  has  come  down 
to  us.  Ought  there  not  to  be  a  church  to  the  woman  named 
Damaris,  who  also  received  the  Pauline  message  ? 

Much  of  "  the  glory  that  was  Greece  "  has  passed  away. 
Her  gifts  to  the  world  of  beauty  have,  however,  become  a 
part  of  our  civilization.  The  heroic  battle  on  yonder  waters 
of  Salamis,  by  which  Europe  was  saved  from  barbarian 
Asiatic  hordes,  will  never  die  from  human  recollection.  But 
the  solemn  and  truthful  words  of  the  great-hearted  Apostle, 
spoken  long  ago  on  that  rocky  hill  which  in  this  evening 
twilight  is  not  visible  from  the  Piraeus,  come  closer  to  me 
now  than  Athenian  art  and  heroism.  Those  words  are  the 
explanation  and  justification  of  my  most  important  activities 
in  recent  years,  and  but  for  them  my  face  would  not  now 
be  set  towards  India. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

CONSTANTINOPLE,    SMYRNA,    AND    EPHESUS. 

/^VN  the  first  day  of  November  we  steamed  up  the  Darda- 
^^  nelles,  and  caught  our  first  glimpse  of  Moslem  villages 
and  minaretted  mosques.  Both  the  European  and  the  Asiatic 
shores  were  barren.  The  Turkish  fortifications,  at  the  nar- 
rowest point  of  the  strait,  are  formidable.  British  ironclads, 
however,  could  push  their  way  through,  if  willing  to  risk 
some  of  their  number.  The  better  way,  however,  would  be 
to  buy  the  Turkish  commander.  He  and  all  his  tribe  are 
for  sale.  Once  through  the  Dardanelles  the  British  fleet 
would  find  themselves  in  no  trap,  as  some  have  asserted. 
The  ships  could  easily  supply  themselves  with  coal,  and  a  few 
shells  sent  into  the  Yildiz  Kiosk,  where  the  Sultan  now  lives, 
would  make  him  as  meek  and  timid  as  a  certain  Roman 
emperor  when  he  felt  of  the  sharp  point  of  a  dagger.  It  is 
the  general  conviction  in  Constantinople  that  the  shade  of 
Nero  blushed  on  hearing  of  the  Sultan's  performances, 
knowing  that  the  darkest  laurels  of  infamy  henceforth  must 
rest  on  the  brow  of  Abdul. 

We  had  to  stop  at  the  Dardanelles,  and  show  our  papers 
to  the  Turkish  officials,  who  came  out  in  a  little  tug  called 
the  "  Game  Cock."  Farther  along  we  passed  the  site  of 
Abydos,  where  Xerxes  built  his  bridge  of  boats,  where 
Leander  used  to  swim  over  to  greet  his  beloved  Hero,  and 
where  Byron  performed  the  same  feat  to  show  that  he  too 
could  do  it.  At  eleven  o'clock  Sunday  we  had  an  English 
church  service  on  deck,  with  preaching  by  the  chaplain  of 
the  Bishop  of  Jerusalem.  At  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  I 
preached  in  the  saloon,  the  captain  reading  from  the  Scrip- 


CONSTANTINOPLE,   SMYRNA,  AND  EPHESUS.       239 

tures,  which  rested  on  the  Union  Jack,  and  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Parkes,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  church,  Birmingham, 
offering  prayer,  in  which  he  remembered  the  people  of  the 
United  States  who  were  so  soon  to  settle  a  most  important 
presidential  election.  We  reached  the  Bosporus  at  mid- 
night ;  but  as  no  Turkish  official  appeared,  we  were  com- 
pelled to  drop  anchor  and  "  wait  the  throned  day." 

This  is  my  first  visit  to  Constantinople.  The  vision 
which  came  to  me  on  looking  out  of  the  porthole  Monday 
morning,  and  during  the  hour  when  we  sailed  up  past  the 
Golden  Horn,  along  the  palace-lined  shore  of  the  Bosporus, 
and  then  came  back  to  drop  anchor  by  the  Galata  Bridge, 
is  that  of  an  imperial  city  most  "beautiful  for  situation," 
even  though  it  is  now  the  curse  "of  the  whole  earth."  It 
is  the  only  capital  which  belongs  to  two  continents.  On  the 
Asiatic  side  rises  Scutari ;  on  the  European  side  are  the  old 
city,  Stamboul,  with  the  domes  and  minarets  of  St.  Sophia, 
and  other  magnificent  mosques,  with  the  Seraglio  and  its 
gardens,  and  across  the  Golden  Horn,  Galata  and  Pera, 
covering  the  loftier  hills  where  the  embassies  and  the 
European  quarters  are  found.  No  other  city  of  the  world, 
not  even  Venice,  can  compare  with  Constantinople  for  mag- 
nificence of  location.  Here  is  the  marriage  of  the  sea  and 
the  seven- hilled  shore  ;  and  as  one  stands  on  the  Galata 
Bridge,  alive  with  people  of  all  colors  and  costumes,  he  feels 
that  this  is  the  meeting-place  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa. 

The  American  consul  at  Athens  strove  to  dissuade  some 
of  our  party  from  visiting  Constantinople  at  the  present 
time,  when  at  any  moment  permission  may  be  given  the 
Moslem  mob  to  kill  Christians  of  any  kind.  Quite  a  num- 
ber of  us  had  our  passports  visaed  at  Athens  by  the  Turkish 
consul.  On  our  arrival  all  passports  were  called  for, 
examined,  and  counted.  Our  ship  was  anchored  by  the 
quay  close  to  the  Galata  Bridge,  where  the  odors  in  the  hot 
air  were  so  offensive  on  Monday  night  that  the  next  afternoon 
the  vessel  was  anchored  in  the  stream.  Hundreds  of  Turks 
were  at  the  wharf,  and  remained  there  during  our  stay.     At 


240  A    IVORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

nearly  every  porthole  an  Ottoman  face  peered  in  upon  us. 
Some  of  the  worst  massacres  occurred  at  the  place  where  our 
ship  lay  and  on  the  neighboring  bridge. 

The  conductor  of  our  party,  Mr.  Holdsworth  Lunn,  coun- 
selled every  one  to  ask  no  "  political  questions  "  while  on 
shore,  to  go  about  in  groups  of  two  or  more,  and  to  return 
to  the  ship  by  dusk.  Soon  after  landing,  Mrs.  Newman, 
sister  of  Senator  Thurston  of  Nebraska,  Mrs.  Howard,  wife 
of  Chevalier  Howard  of  Jerusalem,  La  Signora  and  I,  ac- 
companied by  Paul,  our  Greek  Catholic  dragoman,  entered 
a  carriage  and  drove  across  the  Galata  Bridge.  The  crowd 
that  surged  either  way,  the  head  of  nearly  every  man  covered 
with  a  red  fez,  the  women  with  partially  veiled  faces,  squads 
of  soldiers  and  mounted  police,  with  officers  in  carriages, 
made  one  of  the  most  picturesque  spectacles  in  the  world. 
But  the  bridge  itself,  with  its  miserable  rough  and  rickety 
boarding,  is  in  keeping  with  the  whole  Empire.  The  draw- 
bridge in  the  centre  frequently  gets  stuck  for  hours,  and  the 
great  crowd  on  either  side  grows  to  be  an  army.  I  was 
complaining  of  this  bridge  to  an  American  resident  of  the 
city,  and  he  said  :  "  You  remind  me  of  the  man  who  com- 
plained to  the  camel  that  his  neck  was  crooked.  The 
camel  answered:   'Is  any  part  of  me  straight?'" 

Soon  we  were  in  Stamboul,  the  old  city,  and  drove 
through  rough,  filthy,  crowded,  and  narrow  streets,  passing 
continually  companies  of  murderous-looking  Turkish  sol- 
diers, and  tall,  black,  finely  dressed  Ethiopian  eunuchs,  and 
women  in  silk  gowns,  closely  veiled,  followed  by  black 
maids,  in  commoner  gowns,  half  veiled.  We  saw  houses 
with  latticed  windows,  to  protect  women  from  the  public 
gaze,  and  felt  ourselves  far  away  from  the  light  and  liberty 
of  Christian  civilization.  We  were  assailed  by  stenches  so 
various  and  penetrating  that  some  faces  were  distorted  with 
actual  pain  at  the  odor. 

Our  morning  drive  had  its  pleasant  as  well  as  its  disagree- 
able features.  I  was  glad  to  stand  within  St.  Sophia,  though 
the    entrance  to    it  is  characteristically  vile.     The  church 


CONSTANTINOPLE,  SMYRNA,  AND  EPHESUS.      2/j.I 

which  the  Emperor  Justinian  built  in  the  sixth  century,  say- 
ing, "  I  have  vanquished  thee,  O  Solomon  !  "  is  one  of  the 
most  important  buildings  in  the  world.  The  edifices  which 
preceded  St.  Sophia  and  which  were  destroyed  by  fire  reach 
back  to  Constantine.  Since  the  occupation  of  the  city  by 
the  Turks  in  1453,  it  has  been  a  mosque,  and  minarets  have 
been  added  to  it.  Nearly  everything  Christian  has  been 
removed  or  painted  over.  We  saw  dimly  on  the  gilded 
ceiling  the  face  of  Constantine.  I  found  two  small  crosses 
on  the  stonework  behind  the  gallery,  and  on  the  cornice 
over  the  Porta  Basilica  we  saw  the  image  of  a  dove  hovering 
over  an  open  book,  on  which  are  these  words  :  "  The  Lord 
said,  '  I  am  the  door :  by  Me  if  any  man  shall  enter  in  he 
shall  be  saved.'  "  The  floor  was  covered  with  heavy  mat- 
ting, on  which  we  were  permitted  to  walk  after  our  shoes 
had  been  cased  in  slippers  and  the  dragoman  had  paid  the 
usual  admission  often  piastres,  or  forty  cents,  for  each  person. 
Parts  of  the  mosque  are  very  shabby.  Still,  the  total  effect 
is  impressive.  Only  a  few  worshippers  were  within,  and  the 
building  seems  to  me  more  fitting,  with  its  comparative  sim- 
plicity and  lack  of  rich  adornment,  to  the  temper  of  true 
worship  than  some  of  the  Italian  cathedrals. 

We  have  heard  much  of  the  recent  massacres,  and  have 
pondered  much  on  the  character  of  Abdul.  The  ambassa- 
dors demanded  again  and  again  that  orders  should  be  given 
to  put  an  end  to  the  horrors,  and  they  were  put  off  with 
lying  promises,  as  has  been  the  Sultan's  custom,  until  he 
was  afraid  to  go  further.  I  have  been  striving  to  learn  from 
competent  persons  who  have  studied  Abdul's  character  for 
years  their  explanation  of  his  infamies.  Undoubtedly  he  is 
a  man  of  great  ability,  much  general  enlightenment,  and  in- 
finite cunning.  Of  course,  he  does  not  deserve  to  be  called 
an  enlightened  ruler,  for  affairs  have  steadily  degenerated 
under  his  management.  A  very  intelligent  English  gentle- 
man, residing  here  for  many  years,  said  to  me  :  "  Things 
are  much  worse  now  than  when  I  came  ;   they  have  been 

growing  worse  all  the   time.     There  used  to    be    men  of 

16 


242  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

respectability  among  the  Sultan's  advisers,  but  none  are  left. 
They  have  been  dismissed  or  sent  far  away."     The  Turkish 
Empire  is  now  governed  by  a  gang  of  scoundrels,  some  of 
them  covered  with  the   most  degrading  vices,  whom  the 
Sultan  has  gathered  around  him  at  his  palace  outside  the 
city ;  or  rather  he  has  grasped  all  power  in  his  own  hands, 
and  governs  through  these  congenial  tools.     Undoubtedly 
he   is  moved  by  fear  of  the  fanatics  of  Islam,  who  regard 
him,  as  he  sometimes  regards  himself,  as  appointed  of  God 
to  smite  the  unbeliever.     It  may  be  impossible  to  explain 
his  motives  in  slaughtering  his  own  subjects  and  ruining  his 
empire.     But  these  things  are  certain,  that  he  fears  for  the 
permanency  of  his  diabolic  kind  of  rule  in  a  country  where 
there  are  so  many  Christian  subjects  belonging  to  a  prolific 
and  industrious  nation,  who  have  come  into  touch  with  the 
ideas  of  Western  civilization,  especially  through  American 
schools  and  colleges,  and  who  know  what  good  government 
ought  to  be  and  do.     If  he  dared,  he  would  overthrow  the 
whole  structure  which  heroic  and  faithful  missionaries,  teach- 
ers, and  educators  have  built  up  in  the  last  fifty  years,  just 
as  he  is  now  shutting  up  many  of  his  own  schools.     Since 
Robert  College  helped  to  educate  the  men  who  made  free 
Bulgaria,  the  five  colleges,  the  forty-six  high-schools,  and 
the  many  common  schools  of  our  American  missionaries, 
with  their  twenty  thousand  pupils,  appear  to  him  a  menace. 
He  regards  himself  as  appointed  to  uphold  the  old  Islamic 
order,  and  he  is  only  doing  on  a  large  scale  what  his  pred- 
ecessors have  done  in  other  times.     The  Austrian  ambas- 
sador, who  has  been  looking  back  into  the  history  of  the 
embassy,  remarked  not  long  since  that  some  of  the  letters 
sent  to  Vienna  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  would  serve 
without  much  alteration  to-day. 

Why  does  not  the  Sultan  persecute  other  Christians  be- 
sides the  Armenians  ?  The  Turkish  government  did  formerly 
persecute  the  Bulgarians  after  the  present  ruthless  fashion. 
It  does  not  attack  Greek,  Italian,  French,  English,  Russian, 
and  American  Christians,  for  the  most  evident  reasons,  —  it 


CONSTANTINOPLE,   SMYRNA,   AND  EPHESUS.       243 

does  not  dare.  There  are  six  foreign  gunboats  in  the  har- 
bor of  Constantinople.  Furthermore,  the  Armenians  alone 
among  the  Christians  are  a  nationality  in  the  Turk's  empire, 
and  one  which  the  Sultan  fears.  Having  got  the  jealous 
powers  in  a  snarl  and  trap ;  having,  through  the  short- 
sighted cunning  of  Lord  Eeaconsfield,  paralyzed  for  a  long 
time  the  big  right  arm  of  England,  —  he  experimented  with 
butchering  the  Armenians,  to  see  how  far  he  could  go 
safely.  He  found  that  he  could  go  a  long  way  in  the  re- 
mote provinces,  and  finally  he  let  loose  his  murderers  under 
the  eyes  of  the  ambassadors.  The  Constantinople  massacres 
were  child's  play  compared  with  what  he  had  done  elsewhere, 
and  were  unaccompanied  by  the  horrors  worse  than  murder ; 
but  they  were  under  the  eyes  of  the  Powers,  and  produced 
a  tremendous  sensation.  The  outraged  ambassadors  poured 
in  their  despatches  to  their  governments ;  but  we  are  told 
that  there  was  strange  silence.  The  cabinets  were  dumb  to 
their  own  representatives.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
Sultan  may  try  his  hand  again,  unless  impending  bankruptcy, 
an  unpaid  army,  and  smothered  opposition  from  some  of  his 
own  Moslem  subjects,  to  say  nothing  of  foreign  interference, 
shall  hold  him  back. 

In  the  chapter  of  horrors  which  I  have  referred  to  it  is 
pleasant  to  remember  that  the  acts  of  heroism  in  protecting 
innocent  Armenians  have  not  been  confined  to  Christians. 
Noble  Mohammedans  have  given  shelter  to  their  perse- 
cuted fellow-subjects.  Turkish  Islam  may  not  be  so  hu- 
mane and  liberal  as  the  Mohammedanism  of  India,  but 
Turkish  Islam  is  not  altogether  bad.  Missionaries  have 
given  me  instances  of  courage,  generosity,  and  humanity  on 
the  part  of  Mohammedans  which  are  highly  praiseworthy. 
We  visited  Robert  College,  spending  one  night  in  the  beau- 
tiful home  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Washburn,  and  also  the  girls' 
College  in  Scutari.  The  Reverend  George  F.  Herrick  of  the 
Bible  House  was  our  companion  in  the  visit  to  Scutari,  and 
from  him  I  gained  much  important  information  in  regard  to 
the   missionary  and  educational  work,  somewhat  crippled, 


244  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

but  which  even  the  recent  horrors  have  not  been  able  to 
destroy.  The  treasurer  of  the  American  Board  has  dis- 
tributed in  the  last  year  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  in  relief  work.  Dr.  Herrick  and  others  spoke  in 
warm  praise  of  the  labors  of  Clara  Barton.  Her  services 
will  be  needed  again  in  the  coming  winter,  if  thousands  are 
not  to  be  suffered  to  starve  to  death.  From  our  ship  we 
can  look  over  to  Scutari,  where  Florence  Nightingale  moved 
like  an  angel  of  mercy  through  the  wards  of  a  hospital.  Her 
name,  like  Clara  Barton's,  always  will  be  associated  with  the 
cause  of  humanity  in  the  Turkish  Empire. 

Down  past  Seraglio  Point,  the  military  school,  the  law 
courts,  St.  Sophia,  and  the  Ahmedieh  Mosque  the  good  ship 
ploughed  her  way.  The  heat  had  been  withering  in  Con- 
stantinople, as  in  Athens.  The  air  was  foul  and  stifling. 
When  we  parted  from  the  Turkish  capital,  a  low  porten- 
tous cloud  hung  over  the  city.  With  no  desire  to  return 
until  the  political  and  moral  cloud  shall  be  lifted,  we 
plunged  into  the  reading  of  our  letters  and  papers,  and 
were  glad  in  this  way  to  escape  even  the  thought  of  the 
modern  Babylon  drunk  with  the  blood  of  the  saints  and 
martyrs  of  Jesus  Christ.  Before  leaving  we  had  been  prom- 
ised that  a  telegram  from  the  embassy  should  reach  us  the 
next  morning  at  the  Dardanelles,  if  any  news  of  the  Ameri- 
can election  had  been  received.  About  midnight  we  an* 
chored  in  the  Hellespont,  and  when  morning  came  a  boat 
was  sent  ashore  to  gain  permission  to  pass  and  to  bring 
aboard  any  despatches.  But  no  despatches  were  forthcom- 
ing. I  complained  to  the  secretary  of  our  cruise.  He 
thought  it  quite  likely  that  a  telegram  had  been  sent ;  but 
deliveries  here  are  very  uncertain. 

Letters  are  often  very  slow  within  the  Turkish  Empire. 
It  sometimes  requires  fifteen  days  to  get  one  from  Con- 
stantinople to  Smyrna.  The  only  security  for  foreign  mails 
is  that  the  Powers  have  their  own  post-offices.  Our  let- 
ters go  through  British  hands.  The  Turk  is  not  to  be 
trusted  with  the  mails,  and  his  censorship  of  the   press  is 


CONSTANTINOPLE,   SMYRNA,   AND  EPHESUS.       245 

minute  and  exacting.  Everything  issued  by  the  Bible 
Society  is  carefully  examined,  and  publication  often  is 
tormentingly  delayed.  In  a  Sunday-School  paper  the 
Turkish  word  "star"  is  forbidden,  and  many  Biblical  ex- 
pressions which  might  be  interpreted  as  reflecting  on  the 
Holy  Turkish  Empire  are  exscinded.  A  friend,  seeing  in  an 
American's  mail  an  American  newspaper  which  condemned 
the  Sultan,  remarked:  "This  is  a  liberty  which  Russia 
would  not  allow."  But  the  information  soon  came  that 
Turkey  also  would  not  allow  it.  Such  papers  are  brought 
in  only  through  mails  in  the  hands  of  foreign  governments. 

As  we  looked  a  second  time  at  the  Turkish  fortifications 
which  guard  the  Dardanelles,  many  were  our  speculations 
as  to  the  possibility  of  a  British  fleet's  forcing  a  passage. 
The  most  interesting  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  matter 
which  I  have  heard  was  made  by  an  Illinois  soldier  who 
served  four  years  with  Grant.  An  English  gentleman  had 
quoted  Admiral  Hornby's  report  to  the  British  government 
in  regard  to  the  peril  and  the  probable  loss  of  a  part  of  the 
fleet.  Some  of  his  guns,  he  reported,  were  so  mounted 
that  they  could  not  reach  more  than  half-way  up  the  cliff, 
while  others  would  throw  their  shells  over  the  top.  The 
Illinois  fighter  under  Grant  said:  "I  should  shut  every- 
thing down,  cover  my  ships  with  cotton  bales,  and  run 
through  without  firing  a  gun.  That 's  the  way  we  passed 
the  fortifications  at  Vicksburg." 

It  was  a  beautiful  voyage  which  brought  us,  toward  mid- 
night of  November  sixth,  into  the  great  harbor  of  Smyrna. 
We  had  passed  by  the  site  of  Troy  and  the  Isle  of  Tenedos, 
had  glimpses  of  Mount  Ida,  and  had  sailed  between  Mity- 
lene  and  the  Asiatic  coast.  When  the  sun  had  risen  over 
the  circle  of  hills  surrounding  the  beautiful  harbor,  we  found 
ourselves  in  the  blue  waters  of  a  bay  filled  with  ships  of  all 
nations  and  fronting  the  towers,  domes,  and  minarets  of  a 
beautiful  city.  Along  the  shore  are  the  principal  thorough- 
fares of  the  European  quarter,  well-built,  fine.  The  Mos- 
lem region  is  distinguished  by  the  dark  cypresses  and  the 


246  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

white  minarets,  while  the  bazaars  occupy  a  portion  of  the 
ancient  and  now  closed  harbor.  This  city  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  inhabitants,  of  whom  only  fifty 
thousand  are  Moslem,  has  a  history  reaching  back  three 
thousand  years.  It  is  associated  with  the  kings  of  Lydia, 
with  the  birth  of  Homer,  and  with  the  enterprises  of  Ionian 
commerce.  It  is  one  of  the  seven  cities  which  contended 
for  the  honor  of  Homer's  birth,  and  the  first  of  them  in  the 
well-known  hexameter, — 

"  Smyrna,  Chios,  Colophon,  Salamis,  Rhodos,  Argos,  Athenae." 

Under  the  successors  of  Alexander  the  Great,  Smyrna 
had  an  eminent  place  among  the  cities  of  Asia,  and  during 
Roman  times  it  combined  many  of  the  glories  both  of 
Athens  and  Corinth.  It  was  the  seat  of  one  of  the  seven 
churches  to  which  St.  John  sent  his  messages  from  Patmos. 
Here  Polycarp,  the  favorite  disciple  of  St.  John,  was 
burned.  Smyrna  suffered  greatly  during  the  Byzantine 
period,  and  through  the  long  Mongol  and  Moslem  wars. 
Timur  the  Tartar  captured  it,  and  left  as  a  trophy  a  tower 
made  of  one  thousand  Christian  heads.  From  Turks  and 
earthquakes  it  has  suffered  severely;  but  modern  French 
and  Greek  enterprise  and  the  industry  of  Armenians  have 
given  it  recently  a  measure  of  prosperity,  although  it  never 
has  reached  its  old-time  splendor. 

"  The  '  Ornament  of  Asia  '  and  the  '  Crown 
Of  fair  Ionia.'     Yes,  but  Asia  stands 
No  more  an  empress,  and  Ionia's  hands 
Have  lost  their  sceptre.     Thou,  majestic  town, 
Art  as  a  diamond  on  a  faded  robe : 
The  freshness  of  thy  beauty  scatters  yet 
The  radiance  of  that  sun  of  empire  set, 
Whose  disk  sublime  illumed  the  ancient  globe. 
Thou  sitt'st  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea  ; 
The  sea  and  mountains  flatter  thy  array, 
And  fill  thy  courts  with  grandeurs,  not  decay; 
And  power,  not  death,  proclaims  thy  cypress-tree. 
Through  thee,  the  sovereign  symbols  Nature  lent 
Her  rise,  make  Asia's  fall  magnificent." 


CONSTANTINOPLE,  SMYRNA,  AND  EPHESUS.      247 

But  my  mind  was  not  busy  with  the  past  or  present  of 
Smyrna,  but  with  the  spectacle  presented  in  the  harbor. 
Four  war-ships  of  the  American  fleet  shone  in  white  beauty 
in  the  morning  sun.  Two  fine  black  Italian  ships  and  a 
French  war-vessel  also  were  there.  At  eight  o'clock  La 
Signora  and  I  saw  the  stars  and  stripes  run  up  from  our 
four  ships,  while  the  white,  red,  and  green,  or  the  white, 
red,  and  blue  rose  proudly  from  the  other  vessels.  Imme- 
diately the  Italian  band  played  "Hail  Columbia,"  then 
"The  Marseillaise,"  and  then  "Columbia,  the  Gem  of  the 
Ocean  !  "  Our  throats  fairly  choked  with  patriotic  feeling, 
and  with  an  effort  I  said  to  some  English  friends,  "  The 
spirit  of  '  Hail  Columbia  '  and  the  '  Marseillaise  '  will  yet 
be  the  death  of  this  infernal  Turkish  business." 

But  as  yet  we  had   no  news  —  and  it  was  Friday  morn- 
ing —  of  the  verdict  of  the  American  people.     I  had  told 
my   companions    that   I   had   no   doubt   of  the   issue.     In 
my  heart  I  believed   that  Americans  were    singing  "  Hail 
Columbia"  with  new  hope  and  patriotic  exultation.     After 
breakfast  those  who  were  to  visit  Smyrna  and  Ephesus  em- 
barked   in    four    boats    for   the    landing.     Soon   we    drew 
within  hailing  distance  of  a  boat  from  one  of  the  American 
war-ships,  manned  by  white-jacketed  negro  sailors.     At  the 
top  of  my  voice  I  called  out  twice:   "Who  is  elected?" 
After  the  second  call  there  came  back  over  the  waters  the 
expected  word,  which  brought  a  cheer  from  all  American 
and    from    some    English    lips,    "  McKinley."       We     shall 
never  forget  that  moment  of  ecstasy.     The  long  agony  was 
over.     The  great  republic    had   not    been   misled,  and  as 
the  bright  sun  shone  over  the  hills  of  Asia  and  illumined 
the  spacious  harbor  with  golden  glory,  I  said  in  my  heart, 
"  This  is  God's  day  and  Columbia's  !  "     Later  an  English 
friend  suggested  that  the  American  consul  should  treat  the 
whole    ship's    company    to    champagne.     The    Americans, 
however,  contented  themselves  with   being   happy,  and  in 
sending  a  telegram  of  hearty  congratulation  to  the  man  who 
has  borne  himself  so  modestly  through  the  long  campaign. 


248  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

On  landing  in  Smyrna  the  good  news  was  confirmed. 
Some  of  the  English  clergymen  remarked.  "  Of  course, 
McKinley  is  the  enemy  of  England,  for  he  is  a  Protection- 
ist. But  though  our  trade  may  suffer,  the  result  is  good 
for  our  investments  !  "  Near  the  quay  we  entered  tram- 
cars  and  rode  along  the  shore  to  the  railway  station.  We 
saw  great  strings  of  loaded  camels  tied  together,  the  long 
line  led  by  a  Turk  on  a  donkey.  We  had  a  special  train 
at  the  station,  from  which  we  made  our  forty-mile  run  to 
Ephesus,  stopping  but  once.  In  the  compartment  which  we 
occupied  I  was  asked  to  read  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
the  account  of  St.  Paul's  experiences  in  Ephesus,  which  I 
did,  with  some  comments  on  the  victory  in  America  which 
was  uppermost  in  all  minds.  The  Apostle's  work  was 
thought  to  be  injurious  to  the  silver  business  of  Demetrius 
and  his  fellow  craftsmen,  and  they  raised  a  tremendous 
uproar,  fearing  a  falling  market  in  the  silver  shrines  made 
in  honor  of  the  great  Diana.  This  little  incident  in  our 
car  led  to  the  rumor  which  we  heard  at  the  close  of  the 
day  that  the  Americans  had  all  gathered  at  the  ruined  tem- 
ple of  Diana  and  there  celebrated  both  the  first  and  the  last 
defeat  of  the  silver  party  ! 

The  region  near  Smyrna  has  many  spots  of  fertility. 
The  hills  are  beautiful,  but  the  people  at  our  only  halting- 
place  were  the  worst-looking  set  of  beggars  that  we  have 
yet  seen.  Here  some  of  the  party  heard  for  the  first  time 
the  word  "bakshish."  At  Ephesus  we  were  provided 
with  horses  or  donkeys  for  a  two  hours'  ride  over  the  dusty 
plain  on  which  stood  ancient  Ephesus.  We  saw  broken 
tombs,  among  them  the  so-called  sepulchre  of  St.  Luke, 
the  fragments  of  the  ancient  sheep-gate,  a  traditional  bap- 
tismal font  used  by  St.  John,  extensive  ruins  of  the  old 
theatre,  where  the  silversmiths'  mob  called  out  for  two 
hours,  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians  !  "  the  immense 
foundations  of  a  Roman  custom-house,  a  few  large  frag- 
ments of  Diana's  temple,  and  the  remains  of  a  Roman 
aqueduct.  It  was  a  wide  area  of  desolation,  over  which 
the  poorest  of  quadrupeds  painfully  carried  us. 


CONSTANTINOPLE,  SMYRNA,   AND   EPHESUS.       249 

Last  evening  we  sailed  away  from  Smyrna,  passed  by 
"Scio's  rocky  isle,"  and  later  saw  very  plainly  the  Convent 
of  St.  John  upon  the  Isle  of  Patmos.  The  Book  of  Revela- 
tion became  popular  reading  among  the  passengers,  and  I 
meditated  on  the  great  world-kingdom  of  evil  on  which 
the  exiled  seer  looked  out,  and  whose  destruction  he  pre- 
dicted. In  reading  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  the  Apoc- 
alypse many  of  us  thought  of  Constantinople,  seated  upon 
her  seven  hills,  like  the  city  of  the  prophet's  vision.  The 
Turkish  capital,  like  the  polluted  metropolis  that  appeared 
to  John,  also  "  sitteth  upon  many  waters,"  "  is  arrayed  in 
purple  and  scarlet,"  and  is  decked  with  gold  and  precious 
stones  and  pearls,  having  in  her  hand  a  golden  cup  full  of 
abominations.  The  scarlet-colored  beast  with  ten  horns, 
which  appeared  in  the  vision,  is  not  a  bad  symbol  of  the 
wicked  capital  by  the  Bosporus.  We  are  told  that  the  ten 
horns  are  ten  kings  who  give  their  power  and  authority  unto 
the  beast,  —  a  striking  picture  of  the  European  govern- 
ments who  still  hold  their  shields  over  the  Turkish  monster. 
"  The  woman  whom  thou  sawest  is  the  great  city  which 
reigneth  over  the  kings  of  the  earth."  "  These  shall  war 
against  the  Lamb,  and  the  Lamb  shall  overcome  them. 
For  He  is  the  Lord  of  lords  and  King  of  kings." 

One  of  the  striking  things  about  the  Turkish  despotism 
is  the  fascination  which  it  has  exercised  over  many  who  in 
their  hearts  can  have  no  real  sympathy  with  it.  No  other 
government  has  been  so  skilful  and  persistent  in  hood- 
winking foreign  ambassadors  and  in  deceiving  very  many 
influential  visitors.  The  attention,  flattery,  feasting,  the 
gifts  and  falsehoods  furnished  with  cunning  art,  have  misled 
a  multitude.  But  the  present  ambassadors  have  now  all 
been  undeceived,  and  they  unanimously  brand  the  official 
statements  of  the  Turk  as  abominable  falsehoods,  which  are 
no  more  to  be  believed  than  are  his  promises  of  reform. 
Even  our  minister,  Mr.  Terrell,  fully  realizes  what  Sir 
Philip  Currie,  the  English  ambassador,  has  still  longer 
known,  —  the  utter  untrustworthiness  and  systematic,  cruel 


250  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

hypocrisy  of  the  Sultan's  government.  When  forced  about 
two  years  ago  to  sign  one  of  the  reforms  requiring  that  a 
Christian  governor  be  appointed  in  provinces  where  the 
Christians  were  in  a  majority,  the  Sultan  proceeded  imme- 
diately to  authorize  the  massacres  which  were  designed  to 
put  Christians  in  a  minority.  It  shows  how  quick  some 
people  are  to  call  black  white  and  white  black  to  remember 
that  this  wholesale  slaughtering  of  an  innocent  population, 
these  murders,  tortures,  and  outrages  have  in  certain  quar- 
ters been  received  with  stolid  indifference  or  concealed  ap- 
proval, while  these  apologists  for  the  Turk  have  wept  bitter 
editorial  or  official  tears  over  the  killing  of  a  handful  of 
Turks  by  revolutionary  Armenians.  They  condone  abom- 
inable massacres  which  have  such  accompaniments  that  Lord 
Rosebery  declared  himself  unable  to  read  the  official  ac- 
counts of  them.  But  if  one  Armenian,  driven  to  despera- 
tion, maddened  by  the  sufferings  of  his  wife  and  children, 
and  seeing  only  death  before  him,  dares  lift  one  finger  in 
the  assertion  of  his  manhood,  the  devil's  advocates  are  hot 
with  indignation. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Sultan  is  a  very  liberal- 
minded  monarch,  in  that  he  appoints  Christians  to  high 
offices ;  but  the  ambassadors  know  that  these  Christian 
officials  have  no  responsibility  and  no  authority,  and  are 
kept  in  ignorance  of  the  designs  of  the  government.  I 
asked  a  gentleman  of  high  repute,  long  a  resident  in  Con- 
stantinople, why  the  Sultan  made  these  appointments.  He 
replied,  "Just  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  gullible  Eng- 
lishmen and  Americans."  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the 
Armenians  are  persecuted,  not  because  they  are  Christians, 
but  because  they  are  Armenians,  or,  in  other  words,  that 
there  is  nothing  religious  about  this  persecution.  This  is 
not  true.  There  is  a  religious  as  well  as  a  political  element 
in  this  diabolism.  When  the  Moslem  fanatics  struck  down 
their  victims  in  the  recent  massacre,  they  were  continually 
shouting  the  word  "  Infidel ;  "  and  one  reason  why  the  Sultan 
and  his  cruel  servants  have  no  compunction  about  slaugh- 


CONSTANTINOPLE,   SMYRNA,   AND   EPHESUS.       25  I 

tering  these  defenceless  men  and  women  is  because  they 
feel  in  their  hearts  that  Christians  are  dogs,  whom  they  are 
authorized,  under  certain  circumstances,  to  exterminate. 
It  is  undeniable  that  in  these  Armenian  massacres  life  was 
frequently  offered  on  condition  that  the  intended  victim 
would  pronounce  the  Mohammedan  formula.  Some  apos- 
tatized ;  thousands  declined,  preferring  to  join  the  noble 
army  of  martyrs.  More  than  a  score  of  Protestant  pastors 
were  among  these  heroes,  worthy  to  take  rank  with  Poly- 
carp.  I  know  of  one  case  where  a  Christian  pastor  was 
again  and  again  offered  his  life  on  the  usual  condition. 
Again  and  again  he  declined,  saying,  "  I  have  preached 
my  Master  twenty  years,  and  I  cannot  deny  Him."  Fi- 
nally, he  was  told  that  no  more  time  would  be  given  him. 
He  opened  his  coat  and,  saying,  "  Strike  !  "  received  his 
death-wound. 

One  reason  why  the  non-interference  of  the  Christian 
powers  in  all  this  barbarism  is  unpardonable  is  this,  —  that 
torture  is  continually  being  practised  upon  Armenians  in 
Turkish  prisons.  I  know  the  case  of  two  young  men  who 
have  been  tortured  a  fortnight  to  induce  them  to  sign  a 
lying  statement  implicating  Christian  missionaries  in  revolu- 
tionary schemes.  One  of  these  Christian  youths,  a  young 
man  of  great  vigor,  has  been  reduced  almost  to  a  skeleton 
by  his  sufferings.  If  finally  the  desired  statement  is  signed, 
the  Turkish  government  will  give  it  to  the  world,  and  some 
newspapers  will  profess  to  believe  it.  Turkish  prisons  are 
often  shocking  holes.  I  conversed  with  a  young  Armenian 
woman  who  was  thrown  into  a  cell  because  of  a  mistake 
which  a  stupid  official  had  made  in  her  travelling  passport. 
There  were  fifty  women  in  one  hole,  with  scarcely  room 
for  them  to  lie  down.  One  of  them  was  ninety-five  years 
of  age,  and  several  of  them  had  been  tortured. 

The  present  dangers  to  which  American  citizens  and 
their  property  are  exposed  in  Turkey,  the  outrages  already 
committed  upon  them,  and  the  failure  of  the  Sultan  to  give 
redress,  demand  of  our  government   a  far  more  vigorous 


252 


A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 


policy.  Why  not  utilize  the  fleet  now  in  the  harbor  of 
Smyrna  for  some  good  purpose?  Force  and  fear  are  the 
only  means  of  influence  to  which  the  Sultan  is  accessible. 
If  our  government  would  only  insist  that  an  American  man- 
of-war  should  go  up  the  Dardanelles,  it  would  be  permitted 
to  go,  and  our  citizens  and  their  property  would  be  pro- 
tected, and  redress  would  be  forthcoming. 

But  these  are  rather  serious  thoughts  that  were  suggested 
by  a  passage  in  the  Book  of  Revelation.     Sunday   was  a 
quiet  and  beautiful  day  on  shipboard.     We  looked  out  over 
a  "  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire,"  and,  thinking  of  John's 
great  vision,  I  doubted  not  the  final  victory  of  the  kingdom 
of  light  over  the  powers  of  darkness.     An  English  clergy- 
man conducted  service  in  the  morning,  and  the  Reverend 
Dr.  Murphy  of  Philadelphia  preached  an   able   and  lucid 
sermon  in  the  evening.     In  the  afternoon   I  accepted  an 
invitation  to  give  an  address  on  the  "  World's  Parliament 
of  Religions."     Early  Monday  morning  we  caught  sight  of 
the  Holy  Land.     At  nine  o'clock  we  were  anchored    off 
Jaffa,  and  the  sea  was  so  smooth  that  we  had  no  difficulty 
in  landing.     Jaffa  has  greatly  increased  in  population  since 
I  saw  it  in   1874.     The  picturesque  life  which  we  found  in 
the  streets  was  far  more  Oriental  than  anything  in  Constan- 
tinople or  Smyrna.     A   special  train,  drawn  by  a  Baldwin 
engine,  took  us  up  to  Jerusalem,  fifty-four  miles.     I  know 
of  no  other  railroad  ride  that  is  so  interesting,  bringing  be- 
fore us  memories  of  Jonah,  Peter,  Samson,  Joshua,  Napo- 
leon.    We  passed  through  Lydda  with  its  palm-trees  and 
Ramleh  with  its  towers    and    minarets.     We    saw    orange 
groves,  vineyards,  olive  orchards,  pomegranate  trees,  cactus 
hedges,   hundreds  of  camels  and    donkeys,   thousands  of 
goats,  sheep,  and  cattle.     We  crossed  the  Plain  of  Sharon, 
and    climbed   the    hills    of   Judaea,   over    twenty-six    hun- 
dred feet.     We  saw  the  terraced  ridges  on  the  Judaean  hill- 
sides where  once  vineyards  had  flourished.     With  emotions 
which  can  neither  be  described  nor  concealed,  we  gained 
our  first  view  of  poor,  discrowned  Jerusalem.     Passing  by 


CONSTANTINOPLE,  SMYRNA,  AND  EPHESUS.       253 

the  Jaffa  Gate,  we  came  to  Howard's  Hotel,  outside  the 
walls.  After  washing  away  the  dust,  La  Signora  and  I 
entered  the  Holy  City,  climbed  the  old  wall  by  the  Zion 
Gate,  and  saw  the  golden  light  of  the  western  sun  shining 
in  full  splendor  on  the  Mount  of  Olives. 


CHAPTER     XX. 

IN   THE    HOLY    CITY. 

OUR  hotel  here,  like  the  hotel  at  Jaffa,  we  found  finely 
decorated  with  flags  in  honor  of  Chevalier  Howard's 
recent  marriage  to  an  English  lady  who  came  with  us  on 
the  "  Midnight  Sun."  It  has  been  our  fortune  to  see  a  good 
many  decorations  in  our  recent  journeyings.  Paris  was 
still  gay  on  account  of  the  Czar's  visit ;  Rome  was  brilliant 
over  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Naples  at  Constanti- 
nople ;  our  ship  was  dressed  with  bunting  for  the  wedding, 
November  second,  of  Mr.  Perrowne,  son  of  the  Bishop  of 
Worcester,  who  is  a  business  partner  of  Dr.  Lunn ;  and  on 
arriving  at  Jaffa  we  were  taken  to  Howard's  Hotel,  bright 
with  the  flags  of  all  nations.  But  nothing  can  make  a 
Christian's  visit  to  the  Holy  Land  and  the  Holy  City  an 
experience  of  unmixed  joy.  Sacred  and  tragic  memories 
are  numerous  and  oppressive.  He  sees  too  much  suffering, 
too  much  degrading  poverty,  and  too  many  evidences  that 
the  earthly  Jerusalem  is  about  as  far  from  the  heavenly  as 
is  any  city  on  the  planet. 

On  looking  from  my  window  I  began  to  appreciate  some 
of  the  changes  which  the  city  has  undergone  since  I  saw  it 
last.  Further  examination  made  the  changes  seem  almost 
a  transformation.  Within  the  walls  the  streets  are  just  as 
narrow,  dirty,  and  noisy  as  ever,  and  more  crowded.  The 
population  has  doubled,  and  the  Jewish  population  more 
than  doubled.  Of  the  sixty  thousand  persons  who  now 
dwell  in  the  city,  forty  thousand  are  supposed  to  be  Israel- 
ites, and  they  own  three-fourths  of  Jerusalem.  They  have 
even  taken  possession  of  a  large  part   of  Christian  Street. 


IN  THE   HOLY  CITY.  255 

Outside  the  city,  near  the  Jaffa  road,  are  the  fine  buildings 
which  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  erected  for  the  Jews.  But 
these  are  only  a  small  part  of  the  many  important  struc- 
tures which  now  cover  the  whole  western  and  northern 
environs  of  the  city.  The  Russians  and  French  have  built 
very  extensively,  and  their  hospices  for  the  accommodation 
of  pilgrims  are  flanked  by  churches,  hospitals,  schools,  and 
private  residences.  In  the  region  where  the  various  con- 
sulates are  found,  one  seems  to  be  in  a  modern  city.  Not 
far  from  the  Damascus  road  are  the  house  of  the  English 
Bishop  and  the  new  English  church. 

I  have  sometimes  regretted  that  Presbyterians  and  Con- 
gregationalists  have  withdrawn  from  all  missionary  work  in 
Jerusalem,  leaving  the  field  to  the  English  church.  That 
church  is  doing  good  service  through  its  medical  mission 
and  in  other  ways  ;  but  in  my  judgment  nothing  is  quite  so 
good  in  the  Turkish  Empire  as  the  American  spirit,  with  its 
courage  and  its  emancipating  power.  With  American  Puri- 
tan Christianity  goes  the  American  college,  and  out  of  it 
springs  up  Pauline  preaching.  With  all  courtesy  I  must 
confess,  with  many  other  travellers,  that  I  have  not  been 
edified  by  the  "  foolishness  of  preaching  "  as  I  have  heard 
it  in  the  Anglican  church  outside  of  England.  It  is  said 
that  the  fine  English  church  in  Constantinople  was  com- 
pleted and  was  about  to  be  consecrated  on  the  arrival  of 
the  bishop,  when  it  was  suddenly  discovered  that  the  pulpit 
had  been  omitted  !  I  know  that  to  the  English  church- 
man the  service  is  everything ;  but  many  of  us  think,  now 
that  it  is  usually  given  in  an  unnatural  "  holy  tone  "  which 
fails  to  produce  anything  but  feelings  of  drowsiness,  that  it 
too  is  often  a  weariness  to  the  flesh. 

Near  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
city,  rises  the  green-domed  Russian  church ;  and  the  sum- 
mit of  the  Mount  of  Olives  is  now  defaced,  as  many  think, 
by  a  lofty  Russian  bell-tower,  which  is  plainly  visible  in  the 
Jordan  valley.  We  left  the  hotel  one  morning  with  four 
others,  accompanied  by  Gabriel,  our  excellent  Greek  drago- 


256  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

man.  Along  the  dusty  street  which  leads  to  the  Jaffa  Gate 
is  a  great  variety  of  shops.  British,  European,  native,  and 
Jewish  money-changers,  sitting  behind  their  little  tables, 
continually  called  our  attention  to  what  they  could  do  for 
us.  One  must  be  on  his  guard  in  Jerusalem,  where  so 
many  currencies  are  handled.  Almost  all  moneys  are  taken, 
and  I  have  had  the  coins  of  six  different  nations  —  English, 
American,  Greek,  French,  Italian,  and  Turkish  —  given  me 
as  change  in  one  small  transaction.  We  enter  the  rather 
imposing  gate,  and  stand  within  the  walled  city.  To  the 
right  of  us  is  the  massive  tower  of  Hippicus,  often  called 
David's  Tower,  which  is  really  one  of  the  strong  forts  be- 
longing to  the  old  Jewish  wall,  which  was  spared  by  Titus 
in  the  destruction  of  the  city,  with  the  proud  purpose  to 
show  after  generations  what  mighty  fortifications  the  Roman 
arms  could  storm.  I  am  glad  that  Jerusalem  is  still  entirely 
surrounded  by  a  wall.  Although  this  was  erected  by  the 
Turks  as  late  as  the  first  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
does  not  enclose  the  whole  of  the  ancient  city,  it  gives 
Jerusalem  an  antique  and  rather  important  appearance. 

We  are  on  our  way  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
The  streets  are  full  of  donkeys,  some  of  them  white,  and 
many  of  them  carrying  great  loads  of  grain,  fruit,  wood,  and 
straw.  Many  an  ugly  and  stately  camel,  sometimes  so 
burdened  as  to  fill  up  the  street,  lumbers  by.  A  few  weeks 
ago  he  may  have  left  the  gates  of  flowery  Damascus ;  a  few 
weeks  hence  he  may  be  entering  the  streets  of  Cairo  the 
Magnificent.  The  camel  is  the  symbol  of  the  Orient,  as  is 
the  locomotive  of  the  Occident.  In  these  Jerusalem  streets 
the  water-carriers,  bearing  on  their  shoulders  great  hairy 
water-skins,  are  frequent.  These  skins  are  not  leather  bags, 
but  the  undressed  hides  of  animals  retaining  the  shape  of 
the  live  goat  or  pig,  and  are  most  disgusting-looking  recep- 
tacles. No  words  can  describe  the  squalor  and  general 
repulsiveness  of  much  of  the  life  that  here  thrusts  itself 
before  our  eyes.  There  are  moments  when  one  feels  that 
the  humanity    about    him,  ragged,  unwashed,    barefooted, 


IN  THE  HOLY  CITY.  257 

blind,  lame,  must  be  more  abject  than  anything  which  met 
the  eyes  of  Jesus.  In  this  he  probably  is  mistaken.  But 
people  get  so  near  to  each  other  in  Jerusalem  !  The  meat- 
shop  pushes  its  fly-covered  wares  almost  into  your  face. 
The  Moslem  market  is  most  repulsive  to  an  American  buyer. 
In  Christian  Street  things  are  better,  and  one  must  not 
think  that  all  of  Jerusalem  is  disgusting,  though  nearly  all 
inside  the  walls  is  loathsomely  picturesque.  I  am  afraid 
that  I  cannot  make  my  readers  feel  how  unlike  anything 
with  which  they  are  familiar  all  this  life  really  is,  with  men 
and  animals  crowding  against  each  other,  with  merchants 
squatting  in  their  tiny  shops  and  buyers  chaffering  over 
their  purchases,  while  a  stream  of  donkeys,  some  of  them 
bestridden  by  black-legged  and  red-slippered  Bedouins  from 
Jericho,  winds  its  way  through  the  midst  of  all  this  dirt  and 
business. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
the  wares  offered  are  largely  ecclesiastical,  —  rosaries,  cruci- 
fixes, bunches  of  candles,  and  shells  from  the  Red  Sea, 
carved  in  Bethlehem  and  covered  with  scenes  from  sacred 
history.  The  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  goes  back  to 
the  days  of  the  Empress  Helena,  mother  of  Constantine. 
It  often  has  been  destroyed  and  rebuilt,  and  now  is  a  com- 
plicated monstrosity  of  architecture,  not  without  beauty  here 
and  there.  It  shelters  nearly  all  the  wranglings  of  Christen- 
dom. The  tradition  that  this  is  the  real  sepulchre,  and  thus 
the  true  site  of  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ,  dates  from  the  fourth  century ;  but  the  gap  between 
the  fourth  century  and  the  first  is  a  long  one. 

I  have  lost  every  shred  of  confidence  in  the  sacred  places 
which  this  building  conveniently  encloses.  I  remember 
that  during  my  former  visit  I  was  told  that  when  the  ancient 
northern  wall  was  discovered  it  would  very  likely  be  found 
that  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  outside  of  it. 
Jesus  was  crucified  without  the  gate,  and  buried  in  a  tomb 
near  by.  In  the  Russian  Hospice,  quite  near  to  the  present 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the  visitor  is    now  shown 

17 


258  A    WORLD-PTLGRIMAGE. 

some  considerable  fragments  of  great  antiquity,  credited  by 
many  as  belonging  to  the  eagerly  sought  ancient  wall.  But 
Dr.  Bliss  assures  us  that  this  cannot  be  so.  He  has  exam- 
ined the  old  walls  of  the  city,  Crusaders',  Byzantine,  Roman, 
and  Jewish,  and  in  no  case  were  they  less  than  nine  feet  in 
thickness.  The  masonry  shown  in  the  Russian  Hospice  is 
perhaps  four  feet  in  diameter,  and  may  be  a  part  of  Con- 
stantine's  Basilica  in  which  the  so-called  Holy  Sepulchre 
was  originally  enshrined.  After  visiting  near  the  Damascus 
Gate  what  is  called  the  New  Calvary,  above  the  so-called 
Grotto  of  Jeremiah,  I  have  come  to  feel  that  many  proba- 
bilities combine  to  support  the  theory  that  this  was  the  real 
site  of  the  Crucifixion.  Here  is  a  rocky  knoll,  perhaps 
thirty  feet  high,  having  some  resemblance  to  a  skull,  which 
manifestly  has  not  changed  its  appearance,  for  that  is  due 
to  the  natural  surface  of  the  rock.  It  is  outside  of  the 
walls  and  close  to  the  northern  highway.  We  read  in 
the  narrative  of  John  :  "  Now  in  the  place  where  He  was 
crucified  there  was  a  garden ;  and  in  the  garden  a  new 
sepulchre,  wherein  was  never  man  yet  laid.  There  laid 
they  Jesus  therefore  because  of  the  Jews'  preparation  day ; 
for  the  sepulchre  was  nigh  at  hand."  Now  there  comes 
before  us  the  strange  fact  that  in  the  side  of  this  "  New 
Calvary  "  has  been  discovered  an  ancient  rock-cut  tomb, 
which  is  pronounced  by  scholars  to  be  Jewish  and  older 
than  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  In  this  tomb  was  found 
an  alabaster  slab,  —  one  indication,  among  others,  that  it  was 
a  grave  prepared  for  a  rich  man,  like  Joseph  of  Arimathea. 
It  is  well  known  that  General  Gordon  became  thoroughly 
convinced  that  this  was  the  tomb  in  which  Christ  conquered 
the  power  of  death,  and  his  conviction  is  shared  by  a  con- 
stantly growing  number  of  Bible-reading  visitors.  I  was 
glad  to  learn  that  this  important  site  had  been  conditionally 
purchased  by  a  number  of  English  gentlemen,  in  order  to 
secure  it  from  desecration  and  superstition.  A  servant 
unlocks  the  door  and  you  stand  in  a  large  rock-hewn  room, 
the  antechamber,  on  the  right  of  which   are  three  empty 


IN  THE  HOLY  CITY.  259 

"  loculi,"  or  places  for  bodies.  Of  these  three  places  one 
is  unfinished,  one  is  for  a  woman,  and  the  third  and  largest, 
nearest  the  farther  wall,  is  evidently  for  a  man.  The  rock 
has  been  hollowed  out  at  the  head  to  make  the  grave 
longer ;  and  this  third  place,  where  it  is  supposed  the  body 
of  Jesus  was  laid,  could  be  seen  by  the  disciple  who  looked 
in  through  the  aperture  from  which  the  stone  had  been 
rolled  away.  It  may  be  that  no  demonstration  of  the 
genuineness  of  this  Holy  Sepulchre  is  possible.  Very 
likely  it  is  best  that  we  should  not  know  with  certainty. 
Place-worship  is  unchristian,  and  is  contrary  to  that  spir- 
itual worship  which  Jesus  announced  to  the  Samaritan 
woman  at  Jacob's  well.  But  I  confess  that  it  was  with  a 
feeling  of  deepest  awe  that  I  entered  this  ancient  Jewish 
tomb,  on  which  a  very  old  Christian  symbol  was  discovered 
when  it  was  first  opened.  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  this 
newly  discovered  sepulchre,  about  which  reverence  but  not 
superstition  is  likely  to  gather,  may  be  a  symbol  of  the  bet- 
ter Christianity  of  the  future.  Surely  the  old  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  like  the  Church  of  the  Nativity  at 
Bethlehem,  is  a  mighty  object-lesson  of  a  divided  and  cor- 
rupted Christendom.  Language  is  feeble  in  describing  the 
ecclesiastical  falsehoods,  the  indecent  and  impious  frauds, 
and  the  diabolical  contentions  of  so-called  Christians  in  the 
so-called  Holy  Places.  The  Greeks,  Latins,  Armenians, 
and  Copts  have  each  a  share,  more  or  less  profitable,  in  the 
consecrated  falsities  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
But  the  Greeks  outdo  all  the  rest  in  blasphemy  by  the  frau- 
dulent annual  "  miracle  "  of  the  Holy  Fire.  Ignorant, 
pious  pilgrims,  with  unlighted  torches  in  hand,  crowd 
around  the  sepulchre,  each  one  eager  to  be  the  first  to  light 
his  torch  from  the  miraculous  flame,  symbol  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  which  appears  suddenly  at  an  aperture  and  which 
they  are  taught  has  come  down  from  heaven.  How  the 
atheist-priest  inside,  who  has  struck  his  lucifer  match  and 
ignited  some  easily  combustible  substance,  must  smile  over 
his  impious  fraud  !     Scenes  of  fanatic  violence  have  some- 


260  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

times  occurred  in  connection  with  the  Holy  Fire,  and  Turk- 
ish soldiers  are  always  on  hand  to  preserve  the  peace.  An 
English  friend  who  was  once  present  at  this  frightful  specta- 
cle, said  to  the  Turkish  Pasha,  "  There  is  no  Christianity  in 
that.  If  there  were  no  other  Christianity  than  that  in  the 
world,  I  'd  be  a  Moslem."  And  how  often  at  many  of  the 
Holy  Places  in  Jerusalem  one  feels  like  exclaiming,  "  He 
is  not  here  ;  He  is  risen." 

It  is  no  little  work  to  see  all  that  the  Greeks,  Latins, 
Armenians,  and  Copts  have  to  show  you  in  the  present 
church.  It  makes  one's  heart  sick  to  wander  through  this 
shrine  of  hoary  deceptions.  Here  is  the  Stone  of  Anoint- 
ing ;  there  is  the  stone  on  which  the  angel  sat  before  the 
tomb ;  here  is  the  stone  which  marks  the  centre  of  the 
earth ;  there  is  the  place  where  the  Empress  Helena  found 
the  true  cross ;  yonder  is  the  crack  in  the  rock  made  by 
the  earthquake.  Through  this  crevice,  which  was  at  the 
foot  of  the  cross,  the  Saviour's  blood  ran  down  to  the  tomb 
of  Adam  below  and  raised  that  old  sinner  to  life  !  We  see 
impressions  in  the  rock  made  by  the  feet  of  Jesus.  We  are 
shown  the  tomb  of  Melchizedek  and  the  place  of  Abraham's 
contemplated  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  and  the  tree  where  the  ram 
was  caught !  The  keys  of  the  church  are  held  by  Moslems, 
and  it  can  hardly  be  expected  that,  beholding  the  so-called 
Christians  perpetually  quarrelling,  they  will  soon  be  attracted 
by  the  superior  excellence  of  the  Christian  Gospel. 

The  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  is  of  course  the  ter- 
mination of  the  Via  Dolorosa,  the  traditional  way  of  grief 
over  which  Jesus  walked  from  Pilate's  house  to  Calvary.  It 
is  marked  by  several  "  stations,"  at  which  are  said  to  have 
occurred  such  events  as  the  meeting  with  St.  Veronica,  who 
wiped  the  fallen  Saviour's  brow  with  her  handkerchief;  the 
scourging ;  the  meeting  with  His  mother  ;  the  meeting  with 
Simon  the  Cyrenian,  and  so  on.  The  present  name,  Via 
Dolorosa,  does  not  belong  to  the  entire  course  of  this 
journey.  Other  streets  continue  it,  and  five  of  the  stations 
are  in  the  church  itself.     Some   of  the  stations  have   been 


IN  THE  HOLY  CITY.  26 1 

changed  in  the  course  of  ages,  and  now  we  know  of  a  cer- 
tainty that  the  pavement  over  which  Jesus  did  walk  is  from 
thirty  to  seventy  feet  below  the  present  street. 

We  first  stopped  at  the  Russian  Hospice,  which  contains 
some  recently  discovered  fragments  of  an  old  wall,  prob- 
ably a  part  of  the  original  basilica  of  Constantine.  Our 
second  halting- place  was  at  the  Church  of  the  Sisters  of 
Zion,  by  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch,  where  Pilate  is  said  to  have 
shown  Jesus  to  the  people,  exclaiming,  "  Behold  the 
man  !  "  Here  a  sweet-faced  sister  led  us  down  to  the  un- 
covered foundation  of  the  Roman  arch,  and  showed  us 
pieces  of  Roman  mosaic,  many  feet  beneath  the  present 
level  of  the  city.  Jerusalem  has  been  many  times  captured 
and  destroyed,  and  ruin  has  been  piled  on  ruin  ;  but  in  a 
few  places  we  are  permitted  to  see  bits  of  the  ancient 
Herodian  city.  While  in  this  convent  we  were  taken  to  the 
lofty  roof,  and  remained  for  ten  minutes  in  the  dazzling  and 
almost  unbearable  blaze  of  the  sun,  in  order  to  gain  a  wide 
view  of  Jerusalem.  The  temple  enclosure,  with  its  mosques, 
the  domes  of  synagogues  on  Mount  Zion,  the  two  domes  of 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  many  of  the  buildings 
beyond  the  walls,  and  the  gray  slopes  of  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  covered  with  Jewish  tombs,  made  a  part  of  the 
panorama  spread  out  before  us.  We  saw  quite  a  number 
of  the  children  who  are  instructed  in  this  convent,  and  felt 
grateful  that  they  were  rescued  from  the  dirt  and  degrada- 
tion of  the  common  life.  These  girls  are  taught,  besides 
the  ordinary  school  lessons,  to  care  for  their  persons,  to 
sew,  to  carve  wood,  to  press  and  arrange  flowers,  and  to 
make  rosaries  out  of  olive  stones.  Some  of  the  party  tried 
to  repay  the  courtesies  given  us  by  the  purchase  of  interest- 
ing relics. 

Leaving  our  companions  here,  La  Signora  and  I  walked  on 
eastward  to  St.  Stephen's  Gate,  and  then  down  into  the  val- 
ley of  the  Kedron  near  to  the  Virgin's  tomb,  where  for  a 
week  I  had  pitched  my  encampment  twenty-two  years  ago. 
Then,  almost  overcome  by  the   heat,  we  climbed  up  the 


262  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

steep  bank  to  the  gate  again,  and,  sheltered  by  the  stone 
walls  and  the  shadows  of  the  narrow  streets,  made  our  way 
home.  The  interior  of  the  hotel  is  a  noisy  bazaar,  where 
you  are  solicited  to  buy  a  hundred  interesting  objects, 
many  of  which  would  be  really  valuable  memorials  of  the 
land.  But,  as  we  are  twenty  thousand  miles  from  home, 
by  the  way  which  we  intend  to  follow,  our  temptations  to 
become  purchasers  are  greatly  reduced.  In  the  afternoon 
a  few  of  us  went  with  our  dragoman  to  what  is  doubtless 
the  chief  sight  in  Jerusalem,  the  sacred  square  on  Mount 
Moriah,  where  now  stand  the  mosques  of  Omar  and  El 
Aksa. 

Sixty  years  ago  no  Christians  were  permitted  to  enter. 
The  daggers  of  black  Moslem  dervishes  gleamed  in  the 
eyes  of  all  on-lookers.  Next  to  Mecca,  Jerusalem  is  the 
most  sacred  city  to  the  Mohammedan  world,  for  they  claim 
Abraham  for  their  father,  and  Jesus  as  one  of  their  proph- 
ets. Of  late  years  Christians  have  been  permitted  to 
enter  the  sacred  enclosure.  The  Jews  do  not  wish  to  enter, 
for  they  fear  the  possibility  of  walking  over  the  site  of  the 
Holy  of  Holies.  The  cost  of  each  person's  admission  to 
the  Haram  Esh-Sherif,  or  noble  sanctuary,  is  twelve 
piastres,  about  fifty  cents.  We  now  stand  in  one  of  the 
most  venerable  and  interesting  places  in  all  the  world.  On 
this  summit  of  Moriah  occurred,  in  all  probability,  Abra- 
ham's trial  of  faith ;  here  David  built  an  altar,  here  Solomon 
constructed  his  temple,  here  was  raised  the  second  and  in- 
ferior temple,  and  here,  finally,  arose  the  magnificent  struc- 
ture of  King  Herod,  "  a  mount  of  alabaster,  topped  with 
golden  spires,"  standing  on  a  great  platform,  surrounded  by 
majestic  colonnades  and  enclosing  the  various  courts  of  the 
Gentiles,  of  the  women,  and  of  the  Israelites.  This  was  the 
temple  to  which  the  infant  Jesus  was  carried,  in  one  of 
whose  cloisters  the  boy  Jesus  conferred  with  the  doctors  of 
the  law,  and  wherein  the  Prophet  of  Nazareth  again  and 
again  expounded  his  teaching.  This  was  the  temple  whose 
destruction   Jesus    predicted,  and   whose    devastation   was 


IN  THE  HOLY  CITY.  263 

completed  in  the  year  70,  when  it  was  burned,  partly  by  the 
hands  of  the  Jews  and  partly  by  the  Romans.  Every  ves- 
tige of  it  has  been  removed  from  the  broad  area  on  the 
summit  of  Moriah.  Some  of  the  massive  foundation-stones 
are  still  visible  on  the  western  side  at  the  Jews'  wailing- 
place. 

We  first  made  our  way  to  the  so-called  Mosque  of  Omar, 
usually  styled  the  Dome  of  the  Rock,  standing  on  an  irregu- 
lar platform  ten  feet  higher  than  the  general  area.  Having 
been  furnished  with  slippers  to  keep  our  profane  feet  from 
touching  the  sacred  matting,  we  entered  the  octagonal  build- 
ing, one  of  the  masterpieces  of  early  Arabian  architecture. 
Externally  the  mosque  is  covered  with  beautiful  porcelain  tiles 
or  with  marble,  and  passages  from  the  Koran  form  its  frieze. 
Within  you  find  yourself  in  a  structure  divided  into  three 
concentric  parts,  supported  by  piers  and  columns,  mostly  of 
marble  of  different  styles  and  colors.  The  interior  is  dark  ; 
and  yet  the  whole  effect,  on  account  of  the  richness  of  the 
materials  and  the  beauty  of  the  mosaics,  is  splendid  and 
striking.  Through  the  variously  painted  windows  comes  a 
dim  religious  light.  The  Crusaders,  of  course,  converted 
the  mosque  into  a  church  when  they  captured  Jerusalem, 
after  having  piled  the  floor  on  which  we  stand  with  thou- 
sands of  slain  Moslems.  But  when  the  Christian  monarchy 
of  Jerusalem  was  destroyed,  the  church  again  became  a 
mosque,  after  having  been  purified  with  rosewater,  which 
five  camels  brought  hither  from  Damascus. 

In  the  centre,  beneath  the  dome,  is  the  holy  rock,  sur- 
rounded by  a  wrought-iron  screen,  the  only  relic  left  of  the 
Crusaders.  This  rock,  more  than  fifty  feet  long  and  forty- 
three  feet  wide,  rises  fully  six  feet  above  the  pavement  of 
the  present  mosque.  It  is  one  of  the  strangest  and  most 
impressive  of  spectacles  to  see  this  primitive  ledge, 
deemed  holy  by  three  religions,  thrusting  its  broad  sur- 
face upward,  beneath  the  magnificent  dome.  In  all  prob- 
ability this  was  the  threshing-floor  of  Araunah  the  Jebusite, 
which    David    bought    for  fifty  shekels    of   silver.      Here 


264  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

stood  the  great  altar  of  sacrifice,  and  some  traces  have 
been  found  in  the  rock  of  an  ancient  channel  through 
which  the  blood  may  have  been  carried  off  to  the  cis- 
terns below.  The  Moslems  have  many  traditions  gather- 
ing about  this  sacred  place.  When  we  descended  to  the 
great  cavern  beneath  it,  we  were  shown  the  impression 
of  Mohammed's  head  on  the  ceiling,  and  also  the  hole 
in  the  centre  of  it  through  which  he  ascended  to  heaven. 
In  the  middle  of  the  floor  in  this  cavern  is  a  round  stone, 
and  when  the  guide  knocked  upon  it  the  hollow  sound 
indicated  a  receptacle  beneath.  The  well  under  this  stone 
is  called  the  "  Well  of  Souls."  No  wonder  that  place- 
worship  has  become  such  a  part  of  the  creed  of  Islam, 
since  Mohammed  declared  that  one  prayer  offered  at  the 
Dome  of  the  Rock  is  better  than  a  thousand  offered  else- 
where. The  Moslems  have  associated  many  absurdities  of 
tradition  with  this  place,  but  no  multiplication  of  absurdities 
can  greatly  lessen  its  historic  impressiveness. 

Leaving  our  slippers  at  the  gates,  we  walked  southward  to 
El  Aksa,  formerly  a  church  built  by  the  Emperor  Justinian. 
Here  we  saw  a  line  of  perhaps  one  hundred  Mohammedans 
going  through  their  prayers  with  military  precision,  all  with 
their  faces  turned  toward  Mecca.  Then  some  of  us  de- 
scended into  the  so-called  Solomon's  stables,  the  great  sub- 
structures extending  beneath  the  Church  of  Justinian,  and 
probably  a  Byzantine  work.  Then  we  walked  along  the 
east  wall  of  the  sacred  enclosure  to  the  Golden  Gate,  which 
has  been  blocked  up  with  stone  by  the  Arabs,  owing  to  a 
superstition  that  some  day  a  Christian  king  will  enter  through 
it  and  take  the  Holy  City  out  of  their  hands.  Below  this 
eastern  wall,  in  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  it  is  supposed  that 
the  last  judgment  will  occur.  From  a  bit  of  column  pro- 
truding over  the  wall  a  hair  will  be  stretched  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  and  over  this  all  souls  must  walk.  Good  angels  will 
keep  the  righteous  from  destruction  as  they  attempt  the 
perilous  feat. 

Leaving  the  sacred  enclosure,  La  Signora  and  I  visited 


IN  THE  HOLY  CITY.  265 

the  Church  of  St.  Anne,  near  St.  Stephen's  Gate,  and  ob- 
served the  excavations  now  going  on,  which  show  that  the 
pool  of  Bethesda  in  all  probability  has  been  discovered 
under  a  church  of  the  Crusaders'  period,  nearly  seventy 
feet  below  the  present  level  of  the  street.  The  Scripture 
account  of  the  miracle,  taken  from  the  fifth  chapter  of  John, 
in  twenty  different  languages,  is  framed  and  glazed  at  the 
entrance  to  these  excavations. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

JERICHO,    JERUSALEM,   AND    BETHLEHEM. 

A  BOUT  forty  of  our  party  made  the  journey  to  Jericho. 
■*■  *■  The  procession,  directed  by  Chevalier  Howard,  and 
accompanied  by  many  Arab  dragomans  and  several  Bedouin 
sheiks,  rolled  or  trotted  around  the  northern  wall  of  the 
city,  down  into  the  Kedron  valley,  and  then  up  and  around 
the  southern  shoulder  of  the  Mount  of  Olives.  The  car- 
riage road,  which  has  been  built  but  a  few  years,  makes  the 
trip  quite  comfortable  for  those  who  do  not  enjoy  riding 
astride  a  horse.  Nearly  all  who  have  come  hither  on  horse- 
back during  this  day  of  excessive  heat,  regret  not  having 
chosen  the  easier  way  of  travel.  As  we  ascended  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  the  fine  panoramic  view  of  Jerusalem  first  showed 
to  my  companions  how  "beautiful  for  situation  "  is  the  Holy 
City. 

On  my  first  visit  to  this  region  I  made  a  long  detour  by 
Bethlehem,  Mar  Saba,  the  Dead  Sea,  and  Jericho,  in  order 
that  my  first  view  of  Jerusalem  might  be  that  from  the 
Hosanna  Road  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  over  which  Jesus 
came  with  the  triumphal  procession.  Those  who  follow 
Dean  Stanley's  advice  and  make  this  circuit  will  have  an 
interesting  journey  all  the  way,  and  at  the  end  of  it  one 
of  those  supreme  visions  which  never  can  be  forgotten. 

Our  first  halt  was  at  Bethany,  a  wretched  Arab  village 
bearing  the  name  of  Lazarus.  It  is  a  little  town  of  hovels 
and  of  sore-eyed  children  crying  pitifully  for  "  bakshish." 
We  visited  the  traditional  places,  the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  the 
house  of  Mary  and  Martha,  and  the  house  of  Simon.  It 
is  hard  to  realize  that  here  once  stood  the  Jewish  village 


JERICHO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   BETHLEHEM.      267 

which  was  to  Jesus  Christ  one  of  the  best-loved  spots  on 
earth.  It  was  hither  that  He  brought  His  disciples  on  that 
day  when  He  was  taken  up  from  their  sight  into  heaven. 
How  strange  that  churches  of  the  Ascension  should  be 
built  on  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of  Olives  when  the 
Scripture  account  teaches  so  plainly  that  "  He  led  them 
out  as  far  as  Bethany"  !  It  is  a  descent  of  nearly  four 
thousand  feet  which  we  made  before  reaching  the  Jericho 
plain.  Our  road  led  through  the  wilderness  of  Judaea.  No 
words  can  picture  its  desolation.  Only  a  few  little  patches 
of  cultivated  soil  appeared  in  the  whole  journey.  We  went 
down  between  hills  of  rocky  and  dusty  barrenness.  Quite 
a  number  of  Bedouins,  perched  on  their  little  donkeys,  met 
us.  They  were  taking  their  wares  up  to  the  Jerusalem 
market.  Glimpses  of  the  Dead  Sea,  a  dazzling  sheen  in 
the  morning  light,  were  flashed  into  our  eyes.  Beyond  rose 
the  mountains  of  Moab,  and  among  them  the  peak  from 
which  Moses  viewed  the  Promised  Land. 

Often  did  I  hear  the  question,  "  How  could  the  Israelites 
have  been  satisfied  with  such  a  desert  as  Judaea?"  But  in 
the  spring-time,  after  the  winter  rains,  these  dry  hills  and 
gorges  are  covered  with  a  carpet  of  flowers.  The  Jordan 
valley,  which  lay  just  before  the  Israelites,  when  they  entered 
the  Promised  Land,  was  a  broad,  verdant,  and  palm-covered 
plain.  In  rocky  Judah  and  Benjamin  grew  the  hardy  vine, 
and  north  of  Benjamin  lay  fruitful  Ephraim,  and  then  came 
the  broad  plain  of  Esdraelon,  and  beyond  the  fertile  slopes 
of  Galilee.  Even  to-day  along  the  sea-coast  the  plain  of 
Sharon  yields  two  crops  every  year.  Remove  the  curse  of 
Turkish  government  and  after  a  generation  Palestine  might 
again  blossom  as  the  rose.  That  government  presents  its 
fairest  side  in  Syria.  Here  it  is  only  robbery;  elsewhere 
it  is  extortion  and  murder  combined. 

During  our  journey  Chevalier  Howard  and  the  sheiks, 
splendidly  mounted  on  Arab  steeds,  afforded  us  many  dis- 
plays of  fine  horsemanship.  Leaving  the  road  and  gallop- 
ing up  a  rocky  hillside,  they  would  turn  their  horses  suddenly 


268  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

or  stop  them  in  full  charge,  in  sham  battle  with  each  other, 
making  some  superb  Schreyer  pictures  against  a  rocky  wall 
or,  higher  up,  against  the  blue  sky.  We  halted  for  an  hour 
at  the  Inn  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  where  luncheon  was 
provided  for  us,  while  the  animals  were  fed  and  rested. 
Here  Chevalier  Howard  and  his  wife  left  us  and  returned  to 
Jerusalem,  while  we  kept  on  our  downward  way  under  the 
new  guidance  of  Demetrius.  The  scenery  grew  grander 
and  wilder.  At  one  place  we  halted  and  were  conducted 
to  the  top  of  a  hill,  from  which  we  could  look  many  hundreds 
of  feet  down  into  the  gorge  of  the  Brook  Cherith.  There, 
in  those  rocky  depths,  we  saw  the  tiny  Greek  monastery  of 
St.  George,  a  little  green  line  of  verdure  running  beside  it. 
This  is  the  traditional  place  of  the  prophet  Elijah's  retire- 
ment, in  the  days  when  he  was  fed  by  ravens.  At  two  or 
three  points  in  our  descent  we  left  the  carriages  and  walked 
down  the  rocky  and  unfinished  road.  About  half-past  one 
we  reached  the  plain  of  Jericho,  and  in  less  than  half  an 
hour  we  arrived  at  our  pleasant  encampment,  where  we 
are  to  remain  in  quietness  until  to-morrow's  sun. 

The  Jericho  of  Joshua's  time  lies  to  the  north  of  us. 
The  Jericho  of  our  Saviour's  time  is  near  us,  buried  under 
the  sand.  It  was  here  that  blind  Bartimeus  at  the  gates 
heard  from  the  crowd  the  glad  cry,  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
passeth  by  !  "  The  merciful  Prophet  was  on  His  way  to 
the  cross,  and  we  have  followed  to-day  the  path  up  which 
He  walked,  His  face  set  toward  Jerusalem.  Sitting  here  in 
the  moonlight,  my  thoughts  were  not  quietly  resting  on  the 
scene  which  stretches  about  us.  I  could  not  help  remember- 
ing that  there,  beyond  that  gray  western  wall  of  mountains, 
is  the  city  which  He  loved,  now  discrowned  and  humiliated, 
no  longer  the  "joy  of  the  whole  earth."  In  place  of  the 
old  temple  rises  "  the  marble  dome  of  Omar's  tent,"  and, 
instead  of  peace  and  righteousness,  the  powers  of  discord 
and  evil  rage  and  rule  on  the  hallowed  heights.  What 
memories  and  hopes  and  questions  the  Holy  City  everlast- 
ingly evokes  !     Will  her  glory  ever  come  back? 


JERICHO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   BETHLEHEM.      269 

"  Fair  shines  the  moon,  Jerusalem, 

Upon  the  hills  that  wore 
Thy  glory  once,  their  diadem 

Ere  Judah's  reign  was  o'er; 
The  stars  on  hallowed  Olivet 

And  over  Zion  burn. 
But  when  shall  rise  thy  splendor  set, 

Thy  majesty  return  ?  " 

But  the  voices  about  me  were  becoming  silent ;  the 
lights  were  going  out.  I  soon  lay  down,  as  did  Abraham 
and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  beneath  the  fragile  covering  of  a  tent, 
and  dreaming  once  more  their  dreams,  trustfully  surrendered 
all  problems  to  sleep  and  to  God's  own  future. 

We  had  a  comfortable  night,  although  I  was  wakened 
by  the  cries  of  jackals,  one  of  which  came  very  close 
to  our  tent.  The  next  morning,  immediately  after  breakfast- 
ing at  tables  spread  beneath  a  bower  of  vines  and  jasmines, 
we  drove  and  rode  to  the  Dead  Sea.  It  was  a  rough,  dusty, 
irregular,  but  interesting  journey  of  two  hours.  We  saw  two 
Greek  convents  that  recently  have  been  erected  on  this 
desolate  plain.  The  Russian  Tower,  on  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
ten  or  twelve  miles  away,  would  not  let  us  "  forget  thee,  O 
Jerusalem  "  ! 

At  this  rainless  season  of  the  year  the  "slime  pits,"  into 
which  horses  sometimes  sink,  have  been  dried  up.  When 
we  reached  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea,  our  party  was  divided 
into  two  sections,  and  most  of  the  men  and  some  of  the 
women  bathed  in  the  salt,  heavy  waters.  I  found  this  a 
pleasant  and  refreshing  experience,  although  it  is  easier  to 
float  than  to  swim.  But  what  a  strange  and  oppressive 
place  the  shore  of  the  Dead  Sea  is  !  The  waters  are  as 
beautiful  as  those  of  Lake  Lucerne,  but  nothing  lives  in 
them,  and  no  human  habitation  is  found  on  their  banks. 
One  thinks  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  buried  beneath  the 
brackish  lake  at  the  southeastern  side  of  it,  and  here  in  this 
deep  vale  thirteen  hundred  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
Mediterranean,  breathing  the  dusty  air  of  what  seems  like  a 
close  summer  day,  one  is  not  eager  to  linger. 


270  A   WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

An  hour's  drive  brought  us  to  the  fords  of  the  Jordan,  the 
traditional  site  of  our  Saviour's  baptism,  where  the  Greek 
pilgrims  throng  by  thousands  immediately  after  Easter  to 
bathe  in  the  waters,  to  drink  from  the  sacred  stream,  and  to 
fill  their  jars  from  it,  so  that  friends  in  far-away  Russia  may 
share  in  part  their  privileges.  For  many  centuries  Christian 
pilgrims  have  come  hither,  and  once  these  shores  were 
paved  with  marble.  At  the  present  day  ropes  are  stretched 
along  the  bank  during  the  time  of  pilgrimage,  for  the  secur- 
ity of  those  who  enter  the  swift  stream,  and  a  wooden  cross 
is  set  up  in  the  river.  Only  a  few  of  our  party  bathed  in 
the  Jordan,  partly  because  the  waters  are  muddy,  the  shores 
rough,  and  the  undercurrent  sometimes  perilous,  an  Ameri- 
can gentleman  having  lost  his  life  here  two  years  ago.  Very 
many  had  brought  with  them  bottles  to  be  filled  from  the 
Jordan,  and  used  at  christening  services  in  England  and 
America.  It  was  pleasant  to  linger  on  the  shaded  bank  and 
muse  over  what  had  been.  The  secondary  history  which 
has  followed  the  great  scriptural  events  associated  with  the 
Jordan  is  interesting,  and  a  knowledge  of  precise  localities 
is  not  essential.  John  the  Baptist  may  have  stood  where  we 
were  then  gathered.  At  any  rate,  on  the  banks  of  this  same 
stream,  and  not  far  away,  he  carried  on  that  mighty  ministry 
which  prepared  for  the  Messiah's  diviner  work.  And  who 
could  help  remembering  that,  ascending  from  these  waters 
of  the  Jordan,  the  Saviour  of  mankind  went  to  His  temptation 
in  that  rocky  Judaean  wilderness,  to  which  our  eyes  fre- 
quently turned? 

Toward  evening,  when  the  shadows  of  the  Judaean  hills 
were  stretching  farther  and  farther  across  the  plain,  many  of 
us  mounted  donkeys  for  a  twenty-minute  ride  to  Elisha's 
Fountain,  near  which  I  once  pitched  my  tent.  The  road  to 
it  was  past  beautiful  gardens,  full  of  oleanders,  poplars,  bana- 
nas, and  cypresses,  and  through  clumps  of  thorn-trees,  the 
spina  christi,  from  which  the  crown  of  thorns  is  supposed 
to  have  been  made.  We  also  picked  some  apples  of  Sodom, 
and,  after  arriving  at  the  spring,  climbed   a  hill,  probably 


JERICHO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   BETHLEHEM.      21  \ 

the  debris  of  old  Jericho,  from  which  we  had  a  grand  view. 
This  fountain,  which  Elisha  is  said  to  have  healed  of  its 
bitterness  by  casting  in  salt,  yields  an  abundance  of  sweet 
waters  to-day,  and  makes  nearly  all  the  verdure  which  is 
visible  on  the  wide  sandy  plain.  In  the  evening  we  visited 
the  Bedouin  village,  saw  a  family  gathered  about  a  bright 
fire,  while  two  women,  taking  hold  of  the  one  handle,  were 
grinding  at  a  mill,  made  of  two  circular  stones,  as  women 
in  this  land  have  been  doing  for  three  thousand  years. 

Breaking  camp  early  the  next  morning,  we  began  the 
long  six  hours'  climb  up  to  Jerusalem.  Many  who  had 
found  Jordan  a  "  hard  road  to  travel  "  found  this  harder 
still.  The  heat  was  excessive,  it  was  dusty,  and  those  who 
drove  were  compelled  to  leave  the  carriages  at  several 
steep  and  stony  places.  At  one  o'clock,  however,  we  were 
back  in  Howard's  Hotel  to  receive  the  greetings  and  hear 
the  experiences  of  those  members  of  our  party  who  had  not 
gone  down  to  Jericho.  At  the  hotel  I  met  for  the  first 
time  Professor  White  of  Moody's  Institute,  who  is  on  his 
way  to  India,  sent  out  by  the  International  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association.  He  has  been  aiding  the  American 
mission  in  Egypt,  and  about  the  first  of  January  will  begin 
work  in  Calcutta. 

In  the  afternoon  we  visited  the  traditional  tomb  of  David 
on  Mount  Zion,  the  traditional  scene  of  the  last  supper,  the 
traditional  house  of  Caiaphas,  and  the  Protestant  cemetery. 
Our  guide  then  led  us  into  the  Tyropceon  valley  to  the 
arch  which  bears  the  name  of  the  American  scholar,  Rob- 
inson, the  real  father  of  the  scientific  exploration  of  the 
Holy  Land,  and  then  we  attended  one  of  the  most  striking 
religious  services  in  the  world.  At  the  Jews'  wailing-place 
we  saw  gathered  men,  women,  and  children  from  various 
lands,  in  a  great  variety  of  costumes,  and  heard  their 
prayerful  laments  over  the  desolation  of  Zion,  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  temple,  and  the  sorrows  of  their  race,  the  most 
influential,  the  most  illustrious,  and  the  most  persecuted 
people  in  human  history.     No  one  who  has  seen  and  heard 


272  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

it  ever  can  forget  this  service  of  woe.  It  lasts  from  three 
o'clock  to  about  sunset.  When  we  arrived,  perhaps  a 
hundred  Jews  were  present,  mostly  men.  There  were  a 
few  women,  however,  and  about  a  dozen  Jewish  children. 
Israelites  from  many  lands  who  themselves  or  their  an- 
cestors have  suffered  from  persecution,  Rabbis  with  fur- 
encircled  caps  and  long  silk  robes,  each  with  a  Hebrew 
prayer-book  in  his  hand,  here,  on  every  Friday  afternoon, 
by  the  huge  foundation  stones  of  the  old  temple,  utter  their 
prolonged  wail  over  the  desolations  of  Zion.  By  this  wall, 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  length  and  more  than 
fifty  feet  in  height,  the  Jews  have  for  many  centuries  been 
found.  We  saw  them  kissing  the  stones  and  bowing  toward 
them  reverently.  They  laid  their  faces  against  them  and 
thrust  their  hands  into  the  crevices.  They  remained  to- 
gether for  hours,  and  toward  evening  this  pathetic  and  tragic 
litany  is  chanted.  The  leader  exclaims,  "  For  the  palace 
that  lies  desolate,"  and  the  people  respond,  "  We  sit  in  sol- 
itude and  mourn."  The  leader  adds,  "  For  the  palace 
that  is  destroyed,"  and  the  people  cry  out,  "  We  sit  in  soli- 
tude and  mourn."  And  so  it  continues  :  "  For  our  majesty 
that  is  departed,  for  our  great  men  who  lie  dead,  for  the 
precious  stones  that  are  burned,  for  the  priests  who  have 
stumbled,  for  our  kings  who  have  despised  Him."  "  We 
sit  in  solitude  and  mourn."  "  We  pray  Thee  have  mercy 
on  Zion,  gather  the  children  of  Jerusalem,  haste,  haste, 
Redeemer  of  Zion,  speak  to  the  heart  of  Jerusalem  !  May 
beauty  and  majesty  surround  Zion  !  Ah,  turn  Thyself  mer- 
cifully to  Jerusalem  !  May  the  Kingdom  soon  return  to 
Zion  !  Comfort  those  who  mourn  over  Jerusalem.  May 
peace  and  joy  abide  with  Zion,  and  the  Branch  of  Jesse 
spring  up  at  Jerusalem  !  "  Is  there  any  sorrow  like  unto 
Israel's  sorrow? 

On  another  day  we  walked  down  through  the  deep  vale 
of  Gehinnom,  where  children  once  were  sacrificed  to 
Moloch,  and  where  offal  was  burned,  furnishing  thus  the 
name  of  "  Gehenna,"   which  was   applied  to  the  infernal 


JERICHO,  JERUSALEM,   AND  BETHLEHEM.      273 

regions.  Reaching  the  lowest  point  of  the  valley,  opposite 
the  village  of  Siloam,  La  Signora  and  I  began  to  climb  the 
steep  hillside,  at  the  top  of  which  we  hoped  to  discover  the 
encampment  of  Dr.  Bliss,  the  head  of  the  Palestine  explora- 
tion fund,  who  had  asked  us  to  take  luncheon  with  him. 
The  heat  was  fearful,  and  soon  we  lost  our  way.  Calling 
a  stout  Arab  down  from  the  top  of  an  olive-tree,  I  repeated 
the  word  "  Bliss  "  several  times,  and  with  my  hands  de- 
scribed the  form  of  a  tent.  He  was  not  long  in  compre- 
hending my  meaning,  and  soon  started  off  and  up  to  show 
us  the  way.  We  were  thoroughly  convinced  before  we 
reached  the  encampment  that  "  climbing  up  Zion's  hill  " 
is  no  joke.  La  Signora  insisted,  on  meeting  Dr.  Bliss,  that 
she  had  ascended  more  than  seven  thousand  feet,  but  the 
luncheon  and  the  company  compensated  for  all  our  efforts. 
Here  we  met  for  the  first  time  the  Reverend  Edwin  S.  Wal- 
lace, United  States  consul  at  Jerusalem.  I  asked  him  at  the 
table  if  he  had  not  lost  his  faith  in  Christianity  during  his 
stay  in  Jerusalem.  He  quietly  replied  :  "  No,  I  am  a  Pres- 
byterian !  "  Later  we  had  the  pleasure  of  dining  with  him 
in  his  own  home,  and  of  driving  with  him  and  his  charming 
wife  to  the  birthplace  of  John  the  Baptist,  Ain  Karim,  a 
beautiful  village  three  miles  from  the  city,  where  we  saw 
the  Eastern  women  gathered  at  the  fountain  chatting  with 
one  another,  filling  their  water-jars  and  presenting  a  picture 
of  Oriental  life  which  we  shall  not  soon  forget. 

Among  the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Bliss  is  a  broad  marble 
staircase  leading  down  toward  the  Pool  of  Siloam.  He  be- 
lieves it  to  be  of  the  Herodian  age,  and  that  down  these 
very  steps  our  Saviour  may  have  walked.  Here  is  a  Santa 
Scala  more  venerable  and  genuine  than  that  which  the 
Empress  Helena  conveyed  to  Rome. 

After  leaving  Dr.  Bliss's  encampment  we  went  down  to 

some  of  his  excavations,  and  I  remained  long  enough  to  get  a 

touch  of  malarial  fever,  which  I  hope  quinine  and  the  climate 

of  Egypt  soon  will  remove.     In  the  evening  at  the  hotel 

Dr.  Bliss  delighted  our  party  with  an  account  of  his  success- 

18 


274  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

ful  work  in  discovering  the  southern  wall  of  the  old  city. 
The  next  morning  we  gave  to  visiting  the  new  site  of  Cal- 
vary, near  the  Damascus  road  and  above  the  Grotto  of 
Jeremiah.  Then  we  rode  to  the  so-called  Tombs  of  the  Kings, 
perhaps  a  half-mile  from  the  Damascus  Gate.  Through  a 
rock-cut  staircase  we  descended  to  these  immense  chambers 
cut  out  of  the  solid  stone,  which  remind  one  in  their  extent 
of  the  royal  tombs  of  Egypt. 

That  evening  after  dinner  our  party  at  the  hotel  was 
favored  with  a  lecture  on  the  Jews  by  Dr.  Wheeler,  the 
head  of  the  British  Medical  Jewish  mission.  He  has  opened 
a  hospital  for  the  free  treatment  of  poor  patients,  and  by  his 
love,  sympathy,  and  kindness  has  won  a  warm  place  in  many 
Jewish  hearts.  It  is  pleasant  to  speak  in  cordial  commenda- 
tion of  Dr.  Wheeler's  work,  which  is  genuine  and  useful,  and 
quite  in  contrast  to  the  Ben  Oliel  mission  among  the  Israel- 
ites, a  mission  which  in  all  my  inquiries  I  could  find  no  well- 
informed  person  in  Jerusalem  to  indorse.  Dr.  Wheeler  has 
made  a  special  study  of  modern  Judaism  and  all  its  various 
sects  in  Jerusalem.  He  described  in  detail  their  religious 
ideas,  their  marriage  customs,  their  hopes,  their  bitter 
memories,  their  animosities,  their  devotion  to  the  letter  of 
the  law,  and  all  that  peculiar  persistence  of  spirit  which  long 
has  characterized  these  children  of  Jacob.  Their  numbers 
in  Jerusalem  are  constantly  growing,  and  it  sometimes  seems 
probable  that  the  old  prediction  of  their  restoration  to  the 
Holy  Land  may,  in  a  few  generations,  be  practically  fulfilled. 

One  interesting  event  of  this  day  I  must  not  neglect  to 
notice  ;  namely,  our  call  after  luncheon  on  the  venerable 
Armenian  Patriarch.  A  number  of  us,  mostly  Americans, 
were  received  by  him  with  stately  courtesy.  Many  years  ago 
he  lived  in  our  country,  and  was  now  interested  in  Mr. 
McKinley's  election.  He  was  quite  reticent  in  regard  to 
European  political  matters,  though  his  heart  evidently  is 
heavy  over  the  sorrows  of  his  people.  Turkish  sweets  and 
coffee  were  served  to  us  in  the  reception-room,  which  is  filled 
with  portraits  of  many  of  the   European  sovereigns.     The 


JERICHO,  JERUSALEM,  AND  BETHLEHEM.      2J$ 

Patriarch  is  deemed  a  personage  of  great  holiness,  and  his 
hand  is  reverently  kissed,  sometimes  by  princes.  There  are 
only  three  hundred  Armenian  families  in  Jerusalem,  but  the 
church  and  convent  are  said  to  be  possessors  of  great 
property. 

There  was  a  fall  of  rain  during  the  night,  so  that  our  drive 
to  Bethlehem  the  next  morning  was  over  a  dustless  road,  on 
either  side  of  which  the  trees  and  fields  looked  green.  No- 
where else  in  the  Holy  Land  have  we  seen  such  evidences  of 
careful  cultivation.  There  are  many  hills  and  hilltops  which 
are  only  masses  of  bare  rock.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
saw  around  a  Christian  village  near  Bethlehem  the  largest 
and  most  flourishing  olive  orchards  we  have  found  in  Pales- 
tine. We  passed  a  Greek  convent,  but  did  not  care  to 
enter  it.  We  were  shown  the  impression  which  the  prophet 
Elijah  made  in  the  rock  as  he  lay  down  upon  it  for  his 
night's  rest,  but  cared  nothing  for  this  ecclesiastical  miracle. 
At  Rachel's  tomb,  however,  we  came  upon  a  memorial  of 
genuine  human  sorrow,  and  felt  again  the  pathos  of  old 
Jacob's  profound  and  loving  grief.  When  he  was  about  to 
die  in  Egypt,  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  years  old,  the 
patriarch  recalled  to  Joseph  the  scene  of  the  death  of 
Joseph's  mother.  "  When  I  came  from  Padan,  Rachel  died 
by  me  in  the  land  of  Canaan  in  the  way,  when  there  was 
but  a  little  way  to  come  unto  Ephrath  :  and  I  buried  her 
there  in  the  way  of  Ephrath  :  the  same  is  Beth-lehem." 

"  What  mouldering  pile  near  Ephrath  stands  alone 
With  dome-shaped  top  and  base  of  mossy  stone  ? 
Rude  is  the  chamber  where  her  bones  repose; 
Yet  here,  't  is  said,  fair  Rachel's  pillar  rose. 
Ah  !  sad  her  fate  in  Nature's  pangs  to  die  ; 
To  sorrowing  friends  I  hear  her  parting  sigh  ; 
I  see  her  husband's  woe,  his  streaming  tear, 
His  last  fond  kiss  before  he  laid  her  here, 
His  anguished  brow,  where  smiles  no  more  would  be, 
For  ne'er  was  wife,  poor  Rachel!  loved  like  thee." 

Before  reaching  Bethlehem  we  made  a  detour  of  a  few 
miles  to  visit  the  three  immense  pools  which  bear  the  name 


2j6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

of  King  Solomon.  All  but  one  of  them  are  now  dry,  but 
the  Sultan  will  not  permit  a  European  philanthropist  to 
repair  them  and  freely  restore  them  to  the  people  of  Jeru- 
salem. When  I  saw  the  pools  before,  they  were  filled  with 
water.  It  was  here  that  we  camped,  or  tried  to.  The  rains 
descended  so  violently  that  we  fled  for  refuge  to  the  stone- 
vaulted  chamber  of  a  Turkish  castle  hard  by.  A  company 
of  soldiers  occupied  it  then.  We  could  find  none  on  this  visit. 
The  Turkish  soldiers  we  have  seen  in  Jerusalem  are  ragged 
and  half  shod,  and  present  a  most  deplorable  appearance, 
though  they  fitly  represent  the  bankrupt  empire  which  is 
temporarily  supported  by  their  bayonets. 

Bethlehem  is  largely  a  Christian  town,  and  presents  a  few 
evidences  of  prosperity.  At  a  narrow  turning  in  one  of  the 
crooked  streets,  some  of  our  carriages  were  for  several  min- 
utes blocked.  Arriving  at  the  great  market  or  courtyard  by 
the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  we  were  clamorously  beset  by  the 
venders  of  crosses,  rosaries,  and  relics,  and  by  the  sellers  of 
wares  less  ecclesiastical.  One  of  these  tradesmen,  who 
claimed  to  know  me,  produced  a  pass  to  the  Columbian 
Exposition  containing  his  own  picture  and  signed  by  Mr. 
Higinbotham,  and  secured  most  of  the  patronage  of  our 
party.  He  belonged  to  the  Algerine  village  in  the  Midway 
Plaisance.  He  thinks  of  America  as  El  Dorado,  and 
hopefully  awaits  the  next  World's  Fair  in  our  country. 

In  the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  probably  the  oldest  Chris- 
tian edifice  now  standing  in  the  world,  we  descended  into  the 
grotto  which  is  revered  as  the  birthplace  of  Jesus.  This 
great  natural  cave  is  supposed  to  be  the  stable  for  animals 
which  was  connected  with  the  inn  at  Bethlehem  in  which 
there  was  "  no  room  "  for  Joseph  and  Mary.  The  tradition 
on  which  this  faith  is  founded  is  very  old,  but  all  that  we 
can  say  is  that  the  location  is  not  an  improbable  one.  The 
natural  rock  in  the  cave  has  been  overlaid  with  marble. 
The  ceiling,  however,  is  bare.  The  cavern  is  now  a  chapel, 
about  forty  feet  long,  twelve  feet  wide,  and  ten  feet  high, 
and  is  sacred  to  all  the  Oriental  churches.     It  is  lighted  by 


< 
o 


w 

X 

w 
a 

K 
H 


JERICHO,  JERUSALEM,  AND  BETHLEHEM.      277 

thirty-two  lamps,  and  in  a  recess  to  the  east  underneath  the 
altar  you  behold  a  silver  star  in  the  pavement  bearing  a 
Latin  inscription  which  says  that  "  Here,  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
Jesus  Christ  was  born."  Whether  you  credit  the  inscription 
or  not,  you  may  be  sure  that  you  are  standing  in  a  place 
that  has  been  sacred  since  the  days  of  Constantine,  the  first 
Christian  emperor.  But  alas  that  by  the  very  cradle  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace  one  should  see  so  many  evidences  of  the 
angry  divisions  of  Christendom  !  Of  the  fifteen  lamps  which 
burn  immediately  about  the  silver  star  in  the  pavement,  four 
belong  to  the  Latins,  five  to  the  Armenians,  and  six  to  the 
Greeks,  and  in  the  church  which  is  above  the  traditional 
birthplace  of  Christ,  the  quarrels  among  the  monks  of  the 
different  communions  have  been  so  fierce  and  bloody  that 
Turkish  soldiers  always  are  on  guard.  Indeed,  in  the  Chapel 
of  the  Manger,  we  found  an  armed  Moslem  with  his  musket 
standing  in  the  gloom. 

Tradition  has  multiplied  the  sacred  places  in  the  Bethle- 
hem cave.  We  were  shown  the  Chapel  of  the  Innocents, 
where  several  children  are  said  to  have  been  slain  by  Herod  ; 
the  altar  of  the  Adoration  of  the  Magi ;  the  marble  manger, 
in  which  Christ  was  laid ;  and  the  Milk  Grotto  where  the 
holy  family  sought  concealment.  We  escaped  the  realm  of 
tradition  for  that  of  history  when  we  entered  the  Chapel 
of  St.  Jerome,  where  that  great  father  of  the  Latin  church 
undoubtedly  lived,  and  where  he  translated  the  Scriptures 
from  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  into  the  Latin,  thus  giving  the 
Roman  Catholic  world  the  revered  version  called  the 
Vulgate. 

Bethlehem  is  built  on  the  narrow  ridge  of  a  long  rocky 
hill,  and  after  leaving  the  cavern  we  stood  upon  the  edge 
of  this  hill  to  look  over  the  vales  and  fields  where  Ruth 
"  gleaned  amid  the  alien  corn,"  where  the  ruddy  shepherd 
lad  David  guarded  the  sheep  from  the  wild  beasts  which 
crept  down  from  the  rocky  fastnesses,  and  where  the  Syrian 
shepherds  watched  their  flocks  during  that  night  on  the 
wonders  of  which  the  Christian  heart  loves  to  meditate. 


278  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

"  The  shepherds  on  the  lawn, 
Or  e'er  the  point  of  dawn, 

Sat  simply  chatting  in  a  rustic  row; 
Full  little  thought  they  then, 
That  the  mighty  Pan 

Was  kindly  come  to  live  with  them  below ; 
Perhaps  their  loves,  or  else  their  sheep, 
Was  all  that  did  their  silly  thoughts  so  busy  keep." 

The  song  which  came  to  them  on  that  great  night  is  now 
the  marching  song  of  those  who  lead  the  van  in  the  progress 
of  the  world,  — 

"  Peace  on  earth,  good-will  toward  men." 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

ALEXANDRIA,    CAIRO,    THE    PYRAMIDS. 

A  LEXANDRIA,  founded  by  the  great  Macedonian,  which 
*■  as  the  meeting-place  of  three  continents  Napoleon 
thought  might  become  the  central  city  of  the  world,  is  not 
likely  to  be  relatively  more  important  than  it  is  at  present. 
Caesar  entered  this  city  in  triumph ;  and  thus,  unlike  every 
other  great  town,  it  can  claim  connection  with  the  three 
greatest  military  commanders  of  all  time.  Ours  was  one  of 
the  more  than  two  thousand  steamers  that  yearly  enter  this 
port.  The  "  Midnight  Sun  "  drew  alongside  the  pier,  and  we 
had  an  uninteresting  debarkation,  quite  different  from  that 
which  I  enjoyed  in  1874,  when  the  passengers  were  landed 
in  boats  amid  wild  gesticulations  and  wilder  shrieks  from 
black-skinned  and  red-capped  Egyptians,  who  can  put 
more  of  pandemonium  into  a  half- hour's  disembarkation 
than  we  Americans  can  produce  in  a  riot.  We  left  with 
much  regret  our  familiar  quarters  and  pleasant  promenades 
on  the  "  Midnight  Sun,"  the  good  ship  with  which  one  of  the 
happiest  months  of  our  lives  had  been  associated.  The 
parting  with  the  stewards  was  accompanied  by  the  usual 
number  of  sighs  and  shillings  which  make  such  scenes 
memorable. 

On  shore  we  found  about  thirty  carriages,  each  marked 
"  Midnight  Sun,"  waiting  to  receive  us.  Our  luggage  was 
taken  in  charge,  pushed  through  the  custom-house  without 
our  effort  or  attention,  and  met  us  two  hours  later  at  the 
station  from  which  we  were  to  take  the  train  to  Cairo. 
Our  drive  through  the  city  showed  us  how  cosmopolitan  this 
town  of  two  hundred  thousand  people  now  is.  The  signs  in 
Greek,  Arabic,  French,  English,  and  Italian ;  the  mixture  of 


28o  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Western  and  Eastern  costumes  ;  the  visible  connection  of  the 
present  life  with  the  much  greater  past,  which  one  feels  in 
the  presence  of  the  so-called  Pompey's  Pillar  that  stood  in 
the  great  Temple  of  Serapis,  —  all  this  gave  considerable 
interest  to  our  drive.  But  I  confess  that  my  mind  dwelt 
quite  as  much  on  the  past  as  the  present.  Alexandria 
occupies  a  great  place  in  the  history  of  mankind,  or  at 
least  it  once  did.  This  is  the  city  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  of 
Antony  and  Cleopatra.  This  is  the  city  which  afforded 
refuge  and  protection  to  the  Jews  ;  and  here  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  translated  into  Greek,  the  famous  Septuagint 
version.  This  is  the  city  of  Euclid  the  geometer  and  of 
Athanasius  the  theologian.  Here  lived  the  Neo-Platonic 
philosophers,  who  made  the  city  for  a  time  the  centre  of 
Greek  learning.  Some  of  the  most  powerful  influences 
shaping  the  development  of  Christian  thought  came  from 
Alexandria.  Then,  what  terrible  scenes  of  persecution  have 
been  enacted  here,  —  what  dark  chapters  in  the  tragedy  of 
hate  and  bigotry  have  been  written  by  this  harbor  on  the 
edge  of  the  Delta  !  Other  names  than  those  I  have  men- 
tioned —  Clement,  Origen,  Arius,  Archimedes,  Strabo, 
Hypatia,  and  the  more  terrible  name  of  Omar  —  are  linked 
with  Alexandria.  The  Pharos,  the  tallest  lighthouse  ever 
erected  by  man,  has  been  replaced  by  smaller  structures. 
The  light  of  learning  no  longer  streams  from  this  its  ancient 
fountain.  The  little  city  of  Port  Said,  at  the  entrance  of 
the  Suez  Canal,  and  the  splendid  attractions  of  Cairo  lessen 
the  future  importance  of  this  metropolis  of  the  Delta.  But 
this  century  has  witnessed  in  Alexandria  its  rise  from  a 
miserable  village  to  its  present  proportions. 

That  wise  despot,  Mohammed  Ali,  the  founder  of  modern 
Egypt,  dug  for  her  the  Mahmudiyeh  Canal,  which  brought 
once  more  to  the  decaying  seaport  the  waters  and  com- 
merce of  the  bounteous  Nile.  Driving  along  this  canal, 
we  saw  hundreds  of  dahabiyehs  loaded  with  cotton  and 
drawn  by  men,  not  by  mules,  and  recalled  the  fact  that 
the  American  war,  reviving  the  Egyptian  cotton-trade,  gave 


ALEXANDRIA,    CAIRO,    THE  PYRAMIDS.        28 1 

to  this  land  and  to  its  chief  port  a  sudden  access  of  pros- 
perity. Many  were  the  exclamations  of  delight  and  wonder 
over  the  magnificent  groves  of  date-palms  which  we  saw 
loaded  with  the  drooping  clusters  of  yellow  fruit.  Some  of 
these  clusters  were  sheathed  in  canvas  bags,  to  protect  the 
fruit  from  the  birds ;  and  one  of  our  party  thought  that  the 
palm-trees  were  producing  Armour's  hams.  We  were 
driven  to  a  Pasha's  garden,  and  were  permitted  to  pick 
great  bunches  of  red  and  yellow  blossoms ;  and  some  of  us 
gained  our  first  impressions  of  the  richness  of  the  vegetation 
created  by  the  waters  of  the  Nile. 

At  the  station  our  luggage  was  weighed  and  registered 
amid  an  indescribable  din.  Fifty  eager  passengers  were 
pressing  toward  the  counter  and  window,  yelling  in  what- 
ever language  they  could  command.  A  dozen  stout,  black, 
barefooted,  blue-robed  porters,  each  anxious  to  have  some 
traveller's  luggage  registered  first  of  all,  screamed  and  bel- 
lowed enough  Arabic  syllables  to  make  a  new  Koran.  As 
each  piece  was  passed  and  paid  for,  the  traveller  found 
himself  besieged  with  vociferous  demands  for  fees  from 
expected  and  unexpected  sources.  In  Egypt  all  luggage, 
except  what  is  taken  into  the  railway  carriage,  is  weighed 
and  paid  for.  The  scenes  which  result  from  this,  when  the 
passengers  are  numerous,  make  a  confusion  and  hubbub 
worse  than  any  on  the  Midway  Plaisance.  On  board  the 
train  we  were  soon  speeding  by  express  toward  Cairo,  a 
journey  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles.  Crossing  the 
Mahmudiyeh  Canal  and  skirting  Lake  Mareotis,  which  is 
eight  feet  below  the  level  of  the  sea,  we  were  almost  at 
once  in  the  midst  of  the  peculiar  scenery  of  Egypt.  How 
picturesque  were  the  tall  sails  of  the  barges  appearing  here 
and  there,  and  the  strings  of  camels,  and  the  figures  of 
men,  women,  and  children,  silhouetted  against  the  evening 
sky  !  The  mud  villages,  each  with  a  mosque  towering  above 
its  square  low  roofs,  were  unattractive  enough ;  but  the 
long,  green,  wide  fields,  stretching  on  and  on,  appeared  to 
reek  with  fertility. 


282  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Fresh  from  Palestine,  most  of  our  party  felt  that  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  made  a  poor  exchange  when  they  migrated 
from  the  valley  of  the  Nile  to  their  promised  Canaan ;  and 
some  went  so  far  as  to  affirm  that  had  it  not  been  for  their 
forty  years'  wandering  in  the  desert,  which  was  the  death 
of  most  of  them,  the  Israelites  would  have  been  unwilling 
to  enter.  I  replied  to  these  cavillers  by  reminding  them 
that  they  had  seen  Palestine  at  the  worst  possible  season, 
and  after  it  had  been  cursed  by  hundreds  of  years  of  Turk- 
ish rule.  Furthermore,  they  should  remember  that  they 
had  not  seen  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  and  the  fertile  hills  of 
Ephraim.  Still  further,  Egypt  is  a  land  of  monotony.  The 
rain  seldom  falls  and  the  fields  are  "watered  by  the  foot," 
—  that  is,  by  breaking  down  the  mud  embankment  of  the 
irrigating  canals.  Canaan  was  a  land  of  springs  and  foun- 
tains, and  was  watered  by  the  rains  of  heaven.  Moreover, 
it  had  every  variety  of  scenery  and  of  climate,  and  thus  was 
a  fitting  habitation  of  the  people  through  whom  was  given 
to  the  world  a  Bible  adapted  to  all  nations.  Besides,  it 
was  better  to  be  free  amid  the  rocky  hills  of  Judaea  than 
slaves  on  the  fertile  plains  of  the  Nile. 

The  darkness  comes  down  suddenly  in  Egypt,  and  in  an 
hour  and  a  half  we  could  see  but  little.  We  passed  through 
the  city  of  Damanhur,  the  capital  of  a  province  where 
Napoleon  was  nearly  captured  by  the  Mamelukes ;  through 
Tanta,  a  larger  city  with  a  great  mosque  and  the  shrine  of 
the  most  famous  of  Egyptian  saints,  Ahmed  the  Bedouin,  a 
shrine  which  in  August  draws  together  upward  of  five  hun- 
dred thousand  people  from  Mohammedan  Africa.  By 
eight  o'clock  we  were  in  Cairo,  and,  amid  much  noise,  we 
were  distributed  in  three  hotels  in  different  parts  of  the  city. 
Here,  at  the  quiet  D'Angleterre,  La  Signora  and  I  have  had 
as  much  of  comfort  as  can  be  found  in  any  hostelry  on  any 
continent.  The  next  morning  I  did  not  go  with  my  friends 
in  their  drives  to  the  Citadel  and  the  Citadel  Mosque,  from 
which  La  Signora  had  her  first  view  of  the  pyramids,  nor 
did  I  visit  the  Mosque  of  Sultan  Hassan,  nor  the  tombs  of 


ALEXANDRIA,    CAIRO,    THE  PYRAMIDS.        283 

the  Caliphs  and  Mamelukes.  These  I  had  seen  before  and 
could  see  later.  Besides,  I  had  some  literary  work  to  do 
and  some  remnants  of  Jerusalem  malaria  to  kill.  I  walked, 
however,  about  the  streets  long  enough  to  realize  how  Cairo 
has  expanded  and  improved  since  I  saw  it  last.  The  Ezbe- 
kiah  Gardens ;  the  equestrian  statue  of  the  great  soldier 
Ibrahim  Pasha,  who  was  on  the  point  of  carrying  the  Egyp- 
tian arms  to  the  gates  of  Constantinople ;  the  wide,  clean 
streets ;  the  new  hotels  and  other  buildings  ;  the  fine  German 
school  and  church,  with  its  beautiful  palm-trees,  just 
opposite  the  D'Angleterre, —  all  these  speak  of  improvement 
and  wealth  and  the  Western  life  and  civilization  which  have 
come  in  amain. 

The  former  Orientalism,  however,  is  here  in  its  more 
attractive  phases,  and  the  blending  of  the  two  is  such  that, 
with  the  Egyptian  climate  superadded,  Cairo  attracts  and 
holds  many  thousands  of  European  and  American  tourists 
every  year.  But  why  should  I  be  speaking  of  this  modern 
life,  when  right  here  are  memorials  of  that  stupendous 
ancient  civilization  so  fascinating  to  the  scholar  and  so  im- 
pressive to  us  all?  To-day  I  have  visited  the  Ghizeh 
Museum  and  the  pyramids,  and  I  shall  ask  my  readers  to 
look  with  my  eyes  at  these  wonders  of  a  past  which  now 
has  been  explored  and  excavated.  Driving  through  the 
newer  part  of  Cairo  and  crossing  the  Kasr-en-Nil  Bridge, 
more  than  twelve  hundred  feet  in  length,  a  splendid  work 
of  French  construction,  we  met  a  stream  of  camels  and 
donkeys  pouring  into  the  city.  Following  the  road  to 
Ghizeh,  which  is  now  shaded  by  large  lebbek-trees,  which 
look  like  colossal  acacias,  we  came  to  the  palace,  which  a 
former  Khedive,  the  able  and  extravagant  Ismail,  built  for 
his  harem  at  an  expense  of  over  twenty  million  dollars.  It 
is  now  the  extremely  valuable  museum  of  Egyptian  antiqui- 
ties which  owes  so  much  to  the  eminent  Egyptologists, 
Mariette  Bey  and  Maspero.  Not  all  museums  are  interest- 
ing, and  I  think  most  of  us  walk  with  a  tired  feeling 
through  the  Egyptian  museums  in  London  and  Paris.     But 


284  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

one  has  a  different  feeling  who  here  in  modern  Egypt  lays 
his  hand  on  memorials  which  have  withstood  the  wastings 
of  time  for  five  thousand  years.  Think  of  it,  O  children 
of  yesterday  !  Think  of  it,  ye  who  treasure  some  furniture 
brought  over  in  the  Mayflower  or  some  musket  carried  by 
a  Continental  soldier  !  We  are  introduced  at  once  to  the 
oldest  relics,  which  antedate  even  the  builders  of  the  pyra- 
mids. If  the  first  dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings  reaches  back 
about  thirty-eight  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  the 
early  empire  closes  with  the  eleventh  dynasty,  about  2400 
b.  c,  then  one  may  get  an  approximate  idea  of  the  antiq- 
uity of  the  panels,  statues,  tables,  steles,  to  which  he  is 
immediately  introduced. 

At  once  our  eyes  look  upon  a  granite  statue  of  a  priest, 
of  the  time  of  the  second  dynasty,  and  fragments  of  a  tomb, 
probably  fifty  centuries  old,  on  which  are  represented  on  a 
kind  of  hardened  clay,  with  delicate  skill,  six  geese  as  life- 
like as  if  drawn  and  colored  yesterday.  The  perpetual 
surprise  to  those  who  were  expecting  to  see  things  remark- 
able only  for  their  antiquity  is  the  constant  discovery  of 
beauty,  simple,  exquisite,  amazing.  Among  the  most 
noteworthy  treasures  from  the  early  empire  I  will  men- 
tion only  the  famous  wooden  statue  from  Sakkara,  of  an 
inspector  of  workmen,  executed  with  life-like  realism,  and 
the  statue  of  King  Chephren,  who  built  the  second 
pyramid. 

But  every  one  must  turn  with  special  interest  to  the 
coffins  and  mummies  of  the  kings,  especially  those  of 
Seti  I.,  and  of  his  son  Ramses  PL,  —  Ramses  the  Great,  the 
Sesostris  of  the  Greeks ;  probably  the  Pharaoh  of  the 
oppression,  as  Merenptah,  his  successor,  was  the  Pharaoh 
of  the  exodus.  Ramses  II.  was  the  greatest  of  Egyptian 
conquerors,  extending  his  campaign  southward  to  Dongola, 
eastward  to  the  Tigris,  and  northward  to  the  Lebanon 
mountains.  On  the  rocky  walls  of  the  Dog  River,  near 
Beirut,  I  saw  an  inscription  carved  by  his  order,  and  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Nile  at  Thebes  I  looked  many  years  ago  at 


ALEXANDRIA,   CAIRO,    THE  PYRAMIDS.        285 

his  fallen  and  broken  granite  statue,  originally  the  mightiest 
monolith  ever  erected  to  the  honor  of  a  king.  Ramses  was 
one  of  the  greatest  of  Egyptian  builders,  and  his  figure  on 
the  walls  of  a  temple  at  Thebes  looms  up  like  a  colossal  god 
amid  the  soldiers  who  surround  his  chariot.  Thinking  of 
him  as  builder  and  conqueror  and  sovereign  of  the  world, 
the  words  spoken  to  Moses,  "  I  am  Pharaoh,"  gain  a  new 
significance.  For  the  leader  of  Israel  to  turn  his  back  on 
the  earthly  omnipotence  of  the  Egyptian  monarch  and  to 
commit  his  trust  to  the  invisible  Jehovah  is  perhaps  the 
sublimest  act  of  faith  on  record.  The  mummy  of  Ramses 
II.  may  not  seem  beautiful,  but  this  shrivelled  head  of 
skin  and  bone  is  not  lacking  in  majesty,  and  within  it  was 
perhaps  the  lordliest  brain,  excepting  that  of  Moses,  which 
old  Egypt  ever  knew. 

Among  the  treasures  which  I  chiefly  remember  in  this 
museum  are  the  jewels  of  Oneen  Aah-Potep,  found  at 
Thebes  in  1S69,  among  which  were  golden  necklaces, 
winged  serpents,  antelopes  pursued  by  lions,  and  a  golden 
breastplate  inlaid  with  precious  stones.  I  cannot  lead  you 
through  the  innumerable  rooms,  each  filled  with  almost  price- 
less treasures,  reaching  down  into  Greek  and  Roman  times, 
and  even  later,  but  the  whole  life  of  ancient  Egypt  is  pro- 
fusely illustrated.  There  are  rooms  given  up  to  utensils 
and  clothing,  and  cabinets  of  mirrors,  musical  instruments, 
and  children's  toys,  and  there  are  innumerable  scarabs,  or 
stone  beetles,  scarabs  of  granite  and  carnelian  and  opales- 
cent glass ;  scarabs  with  cartouches  of  kings  from  the 
fourth  dynasty  down.  There  are  specimens  of  ancient 
plants,  fruits,  seeds,  flowers.  And,  oh,  the  mummies  ! 
There  are  literally  "  mummies  to  burn,"  and  coffins,  some  of 
them  of  wonderful  workmanship,  decorated  with  delicate 
or  luxuriant  art,  and  with  colors  and  gilding  as  bright  as 
those  of  yesterday. 

A  visit  to  the  pyramids  must  always  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  greatest  experiences  in  the  traveller's  life.  The  first 
sight  of  them  is  like  the  first  sight  of  the  ocean  or  of  Mont 


286  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Blanc  or  of  St.  Peter's  in  Rome.  It  seems  almost  credible, 
as  Emerson  has  sung,  that  Nature  has 

"Adopted  them  into  her  race, 
And  granted  them  an  equal  date 
With  Andes  and  with  Ararat." 

They  were  venerable  when  old  Herodotus,  the  father  of 
history,  described  them.  Moses  looked  upon  them  with 
wonder,  and  in  his  day  they  were  cased  with  polished 
granite,  every  stone  covered  with  inscriptions.  Joseph, 
when  captive  and  viceroy  in  Egypt,  looked  upon  the  pyra- 
mids as  the  mightiest  symbols  of  the  power  that  overawed 
the  world.  Abraham  saw  them,  and  they  were  venerable  in 
his  day.  The  Arabs  believe  that  they  were  erected  before 
the  flood  to  preserve  the  records  of  antediluvian  ages. 
Built  on  a  plateau  on  the  edge  of  the  desert,  they  are  really 
the  suburban  mausoleums  of  the  kings  of  Memphis.  The 
Libyan  sands  have  been  striving  in  vain  to  cover  them,  and 
they  have  nearly  submerged  the  colossal  Sphinx,  —  which 
seems  to  have  been  a  mighty  sentinel,  perhaps  one  of  two 
sentinels,  set  to  guard  the  mighty  tombs. 

The  drive  to  the  great  pyramids  is  over  a  beautiful  shaded 
ten-mile  road,  at  the  end  of  which  is  quite  a  little  village, 
with  a  hotel  for  the  entertainment  of  travellers.  The  Bedou- 
ins, who  have  the  hereditary  guardianship  of  these  kingly 
sepulchres,  usually  succeed  in  drawing  a  large  share  of  the 
traveller's  attention  away  from  the  pyramids  to  themselves. 
When,  as  in  our  case,  a  party  of  one  hundred  arrives,  their 
excitement,  clamor,  and  persistent  greed  almost  make  a 
man  lose  from  his  appreciation  the  magnitude  and  venerable- 
ness  of  the  colossal  piles.  The  arrangements  made  by  our 
conductors  were  as  good  as  possible,  and  on  arriving  at  the 
pyramid  of  Cheops  tickets  were  given  to  those  wishing  to 
ascend  it  or  to  enter  it.  These  were  taken  in  charge  by 
strong-handed,  sure-footed  Arabs,  and  led,  carried,  dragged, 
pushed  up  the  gigantic  and  jagged  staircase,  for  such  is  the 
exterior,  to  the  summit,  —  higher  than  any  cathedral  in 
Europe,  excepting  Cologne  and  Strasbourg.    I  had  climbed 


ALEXANDRIA,    CAIRO,    THE  PYRAMIDS.        287 

to  the  top  once,  and  explored  the  interior,  and  decided  not 
to  undergo  the  fatigue  of  the  climb  or  the  dust  and  heat  of 
the  long  and  suffocating  passages.  Three-fourths  of  the 
:  party  went  to  the  top,  and  perhaps  one-fourth  to  the  central 
tomb,  in  which  no  mummy  of  the  king  ever  was  found. 
Perhaps  the  royal  oppressor  was  afraid  to  be  buried  in  the 
mausoleum  which  had  cost  the  lives  of  so  many  thousands  of 
his  people.  Those  of  us  who  neither  ascended  nor  entered 
the  pyramid  were  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Bedouins, 
—  those  Arabs  who  were  not  engaged  with  the  climbing 
members  of  our  party.  La  Signora  and  I  ascended  as  far 
as  the  entrance  to  the  heart  of  the  pyramid,  where,  looking 
upward  and  downward,  you  get  a  good  impression  of  the 
colossal  pile,  the  stone  in  which  would  build  a  wall  eight 
feet  high  and  two  feet  thick  around  England.  Then  we 
began  to  walk  in  the  broiling  sun  towards  the  Sphinx,  and 
the  Temple  of  the  Sphinx,  in  which  luncheon  was  to  be 
served.  Donkeys,  antiquities,  and  services  were  pressed 
upon  us,  all  of  which  were  declined.  We  soon  got  into 
good-natured  debates  with  the  witty  and  indefatigable  Arabs 
who  swarmed  about  us. 

Be  it  known  to  all  men  that  one  man,  and  he  an  Ameri- 
can, has  left  a  name  which  is  more  frequently  spoken  at 
the  pyramids  than  the  name  of  either  Cheops,  Herodotus, 
or  Napoleon.  Of  course  I  refer  to  our  humorous  fellow- 
countryman  Mark  Twain.  The  Arab  who  claimed  to  be 
the  runner  who  went  up  and  down  the  two  pyramids  in 
eight  minutes  for  Mr.  Clemens's  amusement  kept  near  us  a 
long  while,  offering  to  repeat  his  exploit  for  a  gradually 
lessening  amount.  In  vain  I  endeavored  to  persuade  him 
that  I  myself  was  Mark  Twain.  At  first  he  was  almost  con- 
vinced ;  but  La  Signora's  smile  broke  the  spell.  I  made 
the  experiment  of  talking  only  German  to  the  howling 
Arabs ;  but  soon  several  were  found  who  were  perfectly 
willing  to  converse  in  that  language,  or  in  French  or 
Italian.  They  were  momentarily  staggered  by  my  inquiring 
for  some  one  who  could  speak  Choctaw. 


288  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

The  next  effort  was  to  make  us  hire  a  donkey  or  a  camel. 
We  were  almost  persuaded  to  change  our  plan  when  a 
donkey  named  "  McKinley "  was  offered ;  later  we  were 
tempted  by  the  words  "  « Joseph  Chamberlain,'  —  he  very 
good  donkey."  When  La  Signorawas  startled  by  a  sudden 
bray,  she  turned  and  heard  the  announcement,  "  That  is 
Lord  Salisbury."  Some  of  us  feel  that  his  Lordship's  Guild- 
hall speech  had  more  of  the  asinine  than  the  leonine  ring 
to  it.  At  length  we  came  to  the  Sphinx,  in  too  light  a  frame 
of  mind  to  be  overawed.  A  little  farther  on  was  the  granite 
Temple  of  the  Sphinx,  not  only  colossal,  but  dry  and  shaded, 
where  the  purveyors  of  the  three  hotels — the  "  D'Angle- 
terre,"  "  Du  Nil,"  and  "New"  —  were  providing  for  our 
midday  meal.  Here,  after  a  while,  our  friends  all  rallied, 
each  with  some  adventure  to  relate  of  his  experiences  with 
the  stalwart  and  bellowing  Arabs. 

After  luncheon  an  effort  was  made  to  photograph  the  en- 
tire party  so  as  to  bring  in  the  great  Sphinx  and  the  two 
larger  pyramids.  A  dozen  camels  and  forty  donkeys  were 
immediately  urged  upon  us  by  our  Arab  friends.  For  a 
shilling  you  could  have  your  picture  taken  on  the  deck  of 
the  "  ship  of  the  desert,"  or  mounted  on  the  back  of 
"  Yankee  Doodle,"  "  Mary  Anderson,"  "  Dixie,"  or  "  Grover 
Cleveland."  The  scene  of  confusion,  prolonged  for  half  an 
hour,  occasioned  by  the  headlong  charge  of  camels  and 
asses  into  our  peaceful  party,  revived  the  terrors  of  the 
French  battle  with  the  Mamelukes  near  the  same  sandy 
spots.  Those  of  us  who  resisted  the  charge  and  who  de- 
clined to  mount  to  a  pictorial  immortality  displayed  a  forti- 
tude and  patience  worthy  of  the  Old  Guard  at  Waterloo. 
After  the  photographer  had  first  baked  and  then  captured 
us,  our  procession  wound  its  way  back  beneath  the  com- 
fortable shadow  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  Here  La  Signora 
and  I  entered  our  carriage,  and,  followed  by  begging  Bed- 
ouins to  the  last,  reached  the  shaded  road  that  leads  back 
to  Cairo. 

My  strongest   impression  of  the   great   pyramids  is  not 


ALEXANDRIA,    CAIRO,    THE   PYRAMIDS.         289 

their  antiquity  or  bigness,  but  their  cruel  uselessness.  I 
know  that  they  testify  in  a  clumsy  way  to  faith  in  a  future 
life.  But,  more  than  that,  they  seem  to  me  the  symbols  of 
a  despotism  as  inhuman  and  merciless  as  ever  caused  man- 
kind to  suffer.  According  to  Herodotus,  one  hundred 
thousand  men  were  employed  in  forced  labor,  either  twenty 
or  thirty  years,  in  the  gigantic  task  of  building  the  pyramid 
of  Cheops.  Such  a  concentration  of  power  as  was  directed 
to  the  construction  of  this  royal  tomb  was  afterward  bent  to 
the  oppression  of  the  Israelites;  and  the  redemption  of 
that  people  from  bondage  was  a  divine  thunderbolt  smiting 
abominable  tyranny. 

The  pyramids  remain  to  show  us  how  vast  and  mighty 
that  despotism  was.  But  liberty  also  remains,  widening  and 
continuing  from  age  to  age  and  from  land  to  land.  The 
fiends  of  ancient  wrong  are  being  exorcised,  and  the  God 
who  loves  righteousness  and  works  deliverance  is  exalted  in 
the  eyes  of  enlightened  nations.  The  contrast  between  the 
century  of  Cheops  and  the  century  in  which  we  live  is  well 
exemplified  by  the  contrast  between  the  pyramids,  hoary 
monuments  of  ancient  error  and  wrong,  and  the  Suez  Canal, 
—  an  almost  equally  stupendous  work,  —  that  watery  high- 
way of  commerce  which  brings  remote  nations  closer  to- 
gether, and  through  which  go  the  great  ships,  servants  of 
that  Gospel  which  found  its  sublime  prophecy  in  Israel's 
deliverance   from  Egypt. 


19 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

THE    NILE    AND    MEMPHIS. 

T  F  any  spectacle  of  ancient  Egypt  is  able  to  hold  its  own 
beside  the  great  pyramids,  it  is  the  Serapeum,  or  tombs 
of  the  sacred  bulls,  in  the  suburbs  of  Memphis.  November 
twentieth  will  be  memorable  to  Mr.  Lunn's  Anglo-American 
party,  because  on  that  day  we  saw  not  only  the  Serapeum, 
but  the  site  of  Memphis  and  the  two  fallen  colossal  statues 
of  Ramses  II.  At  an  early  hour,  when  everything  in  Cairo 
was  bathed  in  the  fresh  cool  air  of  the  dawn,  we  left  our 
various  hotels,  and  were  driven  across  the  great  Nile  bridge 
to  the  special  steamer,  one  of  Gaze's,  on  which  most  of 
the  party  were  to  have  their  first  and  only  voyage  on  the 
most  famous  and  interesting  of  all  rivers.  The  shores  of 
the  Nile  near  the  place  of  embarkation  presented  a  novel 
and  busy  scene.  Donkeys  and  camels  were  receiving  on 
their  backs  great  loads  of  straw,  which  had  been  brought 
down  the  river  in  freight  dahabiyehs.  The  camel  never 
ceases  to  be  a  wonder,  and  he  is  as  much  a  part  of  Egypt 
as  the  pyramids. 

We  had  a  delightful  ride  up  the  river,  past  the  green  isle 
of  Roda,  with  its  orange  and  lemon  trees,  its  bananas  and 
date-palms,  an  island  chiefly  famous  on  account  of  the 
Nilometer  at  the  south  end  of  it,  the  square  well,  and  the 
octagonal  column  built  by  a  caliph  early  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury and  often  restored.  Since  all  the  prosperity  of  Egypt 
depends  on  the  Nile  water,  the  important  office  of  measur- 
ing and  reporting  its  height  is  intrusted  to  a  sheik,  who, 
when  the  river  has  risen  to  its  normal  height,  makes  pub- 
lic announcement  that  the  time  has  come  for  cutting  the 


THE   NILE   AND   MEMPHIS.  29 1 

embankment,  by  which  means  the  fertilizing  flood  is  spread 
over  the  land  of  Egypt.  Formerly  the  amount  of  taxes 
was  proportioned  to  the  height  of  the  inundation,  and  it 
used  to  be  common  for  a  rascally  sheik  to  deceive  the  peo- 
ple through  a  false  metre  of  his  own.  For  more  than  three 
thousand  years,  according  to  the  records,  there  have  been 
general  rejoicings  and  noisy  festivals  attendant  upon  the 
announcement,  which  usually  takes  place  between  August 
sixth  and  nineteenth,  that  the  Nile  flood  has  reached  its 
safe  and  usual  height. 

The  island  of  Roda  is  the  traditional  spot  where  Moses 
was  found.  As  our  voyage  continued  over  the  surface  of 
the  broad  and  fertilizing  river,  my  mind  was  busy  with  the 
things  that  had  been.  Interesting  were  the  palm-covered 
shores  ;  impressive  was  the  sight  of  the  great  pyramids  ;  cap- 
tivating was  the  bird-like  appearance  of  the  white-winged 
and  double-winged  boats  which  sometimes  in  flocks  sailed  by 
us.  But  who  could  forget  the  forms  which  have  been  borne 
on  this  river  downward  to  the  sea,  or  southward  toward  the 
capitals  of  upper  and  lower  Egypt  ?  I  thought  of  the  Pha- 
raohs, Ptolemies,  and  Caliphs ;  of  Cheops  and  Sesostris, 
Abraham,  Joseph,  Cambyses,  Alexander,  Caesar,  Cleopatra, 
Athanasius,  Omar,  Napoleon,  Livingstone,  Gordon.  But  the 
river  has  upborne  nothing  more  fateful  to  humanity  than  the 
papyrus  boat  to  which  a  captive  Hebrew  mother  intrusted 
her  first-born  son.  The  fragile  ark  of  reeds  in  which  the 
life  of  the  infant  Moses  was  saved  was  the  ark  of  the 
world's  hope,  more  precious  to  the  highest  interests  of  our 
race  than  the  granite  indestructible  monuments  by  which 
the  Egyptian  monarchs  overawed  their  own  and  later  gen- 
erations. The  little  arms  raised  in  helplessness  were  yet  to 
hold  the  rod  of  God's  wrath  over  the  throne  and  people  of 
the  Pharaohs,  and  they  were  yet  to  carry  the  tables  of 
God's  law  down  the  red  steeps  of  Mount  Sinai. 

The  Nile  itself  is  a  perpetual  theme  of  thoughtful  mus- 
ings. It  is  one  of  the  five  great  rivers  of  the  world.  Of 
these  the  Amazon  is   greatest   in  volume,  the  Congo  the 


292  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

greatest  in  length,  the  Mississippi  the  greatest  in  present 
commercial  importance,  and  the  Yangtse  gives  access  to 
the  most  millions  of  people.  But  the  Nile  surpasses  them 
them  all  in  historic  significance.  It  created  Egypt,  mother 
of  the  old  civilizations.  The  greatest  cities  and  mountains 
of  remote  antiquity  were  upon  its  shores.  For  many  thou- 
sand years  the  mystery  of  its  origin  was  unsolved.  It  used 
to  be  thought  by  the  Arabs  that  the  First  Cataract  was  its 
birthplace,  a  part  of  it  flowing  northward  and  a  part  south- 
ward. Dean  Stanley  calls  attention  to  the  impression  of 
vastness  which  it  makes  upon  European  travellers,  familiar 
only  with  the  Thames  and  the  Seine,  the  Rhine  and  the 
Tiber.  It  is  surely  unique  among  rivers.  For  sixteen 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  it  flows  without  a  tributary. 
The  White  and  the  Blue  Nile  meeting  at  Khartoum,  and 
the  Atbara  joining  it  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  north 
of  that  city,  make  the  mighty  stream,  which,  though  suffer- 
ing continual  loss  from  evaporation  as  it  passes  through  a 
desert  and  thirsty  land,  furnishes,  out  of  its  copious  and 
majestic  flood,  all  the  fertility  which  Egypt,  a  long  green 
ribbon  of  varying  width,  has  ever  known.  Many  are 
familiar  with  the  original  or  with  copies  of  the  Nile  god 
of  the  Vatican,  about  whose  marble  form  are  gathered 
sixteen  children,  symbolic  of  the  sixteen  cubits  which  in 
ancient  times  constituted  the  needful  rise  in  the  river. 
The  area  of  cultivated  soil  is  larger  to-day,  in  spite  of 
the  sandstorms  of  the  Libyan  desert,  and  seven  more  lit- 
tle children  should  gather  round  the  recumbent  figure  in 
the  Vatican.  No  wonder  that  the  mysterious  river,  coming 
down  from  an  unseen  world  and  giving  from  its  bounty  all 
that  made  life  either  tolerable  or  possible,  stimulated  the 
ancient  sense  of  dependence  and  of  reverence.  It  was 
the  ally  and  teacher  of  religion.  And  more  than  this,  it 
taught  science,  gave  birth  to  navigation,  made  land-survey- 
ing a  necessity,  assisted  kings  in  carrying  the  granite  of  the 
quarries  by  the  First  Cataract  to  the  mighty  temples  and 
monuments  of  Lower  Egypt. 


THE  NILE   AND   MEMPHIS.  293 

Without  the  Nile  no  forest  of  obelisks  would  have  arisen 
at  Heliopolis,  no  gigantic  sarcophagi  of  granite  would  have 
received  the  sacred  bulls  at  Memphis,  and  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid would  have  lacked  that  casing  of  shining  porphyry 
which  added  splendor  to  its  vastness.  The  Nile,  with  its 
periodical  rise  and  fall,  keeping  time  with  the  movements 
of  the  constellations,  perhaps  stimulated  the  study  of  the 
stars.  It  certainly  fostered  the  art  of  engineering,  and 
helped  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  the  sa- 
credness  of  property,  for  every  year  the  obliterated  land- 
marks had  to  be  re-established.  How  strange  to  float  upon 
a  river  which  grows  larger  as  you  ascend  it  !  While  twenty- 
five  feet  measures  the  difference  between  high  and  low 
water  in  Cairo,  at  Assouan  the  difference  is  forty-nine  feet. 
The  overflow  of  the  bounteous  river  is  now  regulated  with 
the  utmost  care,  being  drawn  off  into  canals  and  reservoirs 
and  distributed  in  such  a  way  that  Egypt  does  not  present, 
in  the  times  of  the  inundation,  as  it  did  formerly,  the  ap- 
pearance of  one  vast  lake.  One  further  fact  should  be 
mentioned  to  indicate  the  absolute  dependence  of  ancient 
and  modern  Egypt  on  the  Nile.  Too  great  a  rise  means 
wide  devastation  ;  too  small  a  rise  means  the  peril  of  star- 
vation. These  physical  facts  show  how  the  seven  years  of 
plenty  and  the  seven  years  of  famine  were  produced  in  the 
time  of  Joseph. 

After  a  leisurely  and  interesting  voyage  of  about  twenty- 
five  miles,  in  the  course  of  which  luncheon  was  served  on 
the  deck  of  the  steamer,  we  arrived  at  Bedrashin  on  the 
Libyan  or  western  bank  of  the  river,  near  the  site  of  old 
Memphis.  Here  occurred  one  of  those  scenes  which  can 
never  be  described  and  never  be  forgotten.  A  sufficient 
number  of  donkeys  and  a  superabundance  of  donkey 
boys  had  been  provided,  and  they  awaited  us  upon  the 
shore.  We  had  a  four  hours'  trip  in  view.  Each  of 
our  donkeys  had  upon  his  forehead  a  great  printed  card, 
labelled  "  Midnight  Sun."  A  large  number  of  villagers 
were    on   the   shore,   determined  to  impress  upon    us  the 


294  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

superior  excellence  of  their  own  donkeys.  The  pushing 
and  wild  yelling  on  the  part  of  the  Arabs  called  forth 
either  remonstrance  or  screams  of  laughter  from  our  side. 
It  was  a  long  file  of  animals,  tourists,  and  donkey  boys 
that  stretched  over  the  plain  and  wound  into  the  Bedouin 
village  of  mud  huts  now  occupying  the  site  of  Memphis, 
the  ancient  capital  of  lower  Egypt.  A  few  of  the  ladies 
of  the  party  were  carried  in  chairs,  each  upborne  by  four 
stout  Arabs  ;  but  La  Signora  and  I  found  that  "  Mary  Ander- 
son "  and  "George  Washington"  were  sufficient  for  our 
needs.  We  admired  together  the  emerald  green  of  the  fields 
that  stretched  out  under  the  shade  of  thousands  of  palms. 
It  was  very  hard  to  realize  that  below  us  were  the  frag- 
ments of  old  Memphis.  The  mud  houses  of  the  wretched 
common  people  of  antiquity  have,  of  course,  disappeared. 
But  the  stone  temples  and  monuments  of  the  kings  are  so 
numerous  and  vast  that  it  has  taken  two  thousand  years  of 
constant  plundering  to  remove  them.  The  alluvial  soil 
which  the  Nile  has  spread  over  Egypt  varies  from  thirty- 
three  to  fifty  feet  in  depth.  But  besides  the  Nile  deposits 
on  the  site  of  Memphis  are  the  debris  and  relics  of  what 
was  once  an  enormous  and  bewildering  city.  Two  statues 
of  the  great  Ramses  have  been  uncovered  in  this  century, 
one  of  them  very  recently,  which  give  a  faint  suggestion  of 
the  monumental  glory  of  the  past.  One  of  these  colossi  is 
of  granite,  the  other  of  hard  limestone.  The  cartouche  on 
the  breast  tells  us  who  he  was,  while  on  the  head  of  the 
granite  statue  is  the  helmet  crown  of  the  kings  of  Upper 
and  Lower  Egypt.  The  limestone  colossus  is  nearly  forty- 
two  feet  in  height,  and  Herodotus  saw  and  measured  it 
about  twenty-four  hundred  years  ago. 

Leaving  these  fallen  and  broken  memorials,  we  rode 
for  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  till  we  came  to  the  inter- 
esting and  extensive  tomb  of  Mera,  an  important  per- 
sonage of  the  sixth  dynasty,  who  married  a  king's  daughter. 
This  tomb,  which  is  literally  a  spacious  and  decorated  pal- 
ace, was  discovered  only  three  years  ago  by  Monsieur  de 


THE   NILE   AND   MEMPHIS.  295 

Morgan,  the  present  director  of  the  Museum  of  Gizeh. 
The  scenes  depicted  by  the  reliefs  in  the  more  than  thirty 
chambers  and  many  passages  of  this  tomb  show  us  fishing, 
hunting  the  hippopotamus,  the  fattening  of  geese,  the 
making  of  wine,  the  storing  of  fruit,  the  various  handicrafts 
of  old  Egypt,  and  scenes  which  make  real  the  arts  and 
activities  and  many  of  the  ideas  of  a  vanished  civilization. 
More  extensive  still  is  the  well-preserved  monument  of  Ti, 
which  we  next  visited.  The  sands  had  completely  covered 
this  immense  mausoleum,  in  which  the  chamberlain  of  one 
of  the  kings  of  the  fifth  dynasty  was  laid  away  forty-five 
hundred  years  ago  ;  but  the  interior  has  been  cleared  out  so 
that  modern  eyes  may  look  with  astonishment  upon  the 
courts  and  chambers  covered  with  hieroglyphics  and  with 
paintings  in  delicate  low  relief,  and  thus  gain  a  really  full 
knowledge  of  the  life  of  ancient  Egypt. 

One  may  read  detailed  descriptions  of  such  a  sepulchre  as 
this  and  learn  a  multitude  of  facts,  but  a  half-hour  spent  in 
this  tomb  will  stamp  upon  the  mind  a  deep  and  ineffaceable 
impression.  Ti's  wife  was  of  royal  rank,  and  was  "  the  palm 
of  amiability  toward  her  husband,"  as  the  inscription  tells 
us,  and  is  represented  by  his  side  or  standing  on  his  foot. 
He  appears  before  us  as  a  man  of  more  than  double  the 
usual  size.  I  shall  not  attempt  the  impossible  feat  of  de- 
scribing all  these  pictorial  marvels,  so  spirited,  so  lifelike,  so 
beautiful,  and  many  of  them  still  fresh  in  color.  We  look 
at  the  offering  of  gifts,  the  sacrifice  of  victims,  the  slaughter- 
ing of  oxen,  the  feeding  of  cranes  and  pigeons,  the  driving 
of  cattle  through  the  water  of  inundation,  rams  treading  the 
seed  into  the  ground,  the  sowing  of  wheat,  the  ploughing  of 
the  soil,  the  cooking  of  meat,  the  milking  of  the  cow,  the 
performing  of  dancers  and  musicians,  the  making  of  pottery, 
the  baking  of  bread,  the  rowing  of  boats,  the  sailing  of  ves- 
sels with  sails  precisely  like  those  of  to-day,  the  reaping, 
the  treading  out,  the  storing,  and  the  transport  of  grain,  the 
filling  of  sacks  like  those  which  Joseph's  brethren  carried 
away,  the  building  and  calking   of  ships,  the   blowing  of 


296  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

glass,  the  gathering  of  the  papyrus,  the  writing  of  sentences, 
the  trying  of  criminals,  the  bearing  of  large  baskets  on  the 
heads  of  thirty-six  female  figures,  the  drawing  of  water,  the 
snaring  of  birds,  the  hunting  of  crocodiles  and  of  the  river 
horse.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  no  camels  or  horses 
appear  in  these  bas-reliefs  until  after  the  time  of  the 
foreign  invasion  of  the  Hyksos.  These  pictures  are  accom- 
panied by  inscriptions,  many  of  them  amusing.  The  cap- 
tain of  a  vessel  cries  out,  "  Starboard  !  "  The  donkey  boy 
remarks,  moralizingly,  "  People  love  those  who  go  quickly, 
but  strike  the  lazy."  The  overseer  says  to  the  servants, 
"  Ye  are  like  apes,"  and  "  If  thou  couldst  see  thine  own 
conduct  !  "  A  quarrelling  sailor  cries  out,  "Thou  art  pug- 
nacious, but  I  am  so  gentle  !"  The  scenes  here  pictured 
in  the  hunting  of  the  hippopotamus  illustrated  a  famous 
passage  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Job. 

What  Brugsch  calls  "  the  pictorial  history  of  primitive 
Egypt  "  has  been  written  out  with  infinite  care  in  sepulchres 
like  this ;  every  tomb  is  a  picture  gallery  and  a  library. 
And  what  adds  a  pathetic  interest  to  it  all  is  the  fact  that 
these  decorations  were  intended  to  be  seen  only  by  the 
eyes  of  the  mummied  dead  when  at  last  they  should  awaken 
out  of  sleep.  In  one  instance  Mariette  Bey,  on  opening  a 
chamber  which  had  been  sealed  up  for  nearly  forty  centuries, 
found  in  the  sand  a  footprint  made  by  the  last  man  who  had 
stood  within  it,  and  who,  sealing  it  up,  thought  it  might 
remain  undisturbed  until  that  hour  when 

"  The  world  is  old, 
And  the  stars  grow  cold, 
And  the  leaves  of  the  judgment  book  unfold." 

That  footprint  in  the  sand  outlasted  the  monarchy  of  the 
Nile.  The  snows  of  nearly  four  thousand  winters  had  melted 
on  the  Abyssinian  mountains  and  spread  over  the  fields  of 
Egypt  the  green  and  gold  of  more  than  four  thousand  har- 
vests, but  that  footprint  in  the  dark  silence  of  the  sepulchre 
remained.      Babylon  and  Persia  rose  and  fell,  and  Israel 


THE  NILE  AND  MEMPHIS.  297 

went  through  the  age-long  development  of  its  national  life, 
from  the  call  of  Abraham  to  the  tragedy  of  Golgotha  and 
the  scattering  of  the  sons  of  Abraham  by  war  and  persecu- 
tion over  all  the  earth  ;  Greece  and  Rome  ran  the  full  course 
of  their  history  till  all  their  temples  were  shattered,  and  the 
modern  Christian  world  had  passed  through  nearly  two  mil- 
lenniums, before  the  old  sepulchre  was  entered  and  human 
eyes  discovered  how  enduring  may  be  human  footprints  on 
the  sands  of  time. 

Leaving  the  tomb  of  Ti,  we  passed  by  the  famous  step 
pyramid  of  Sakkara,  the  oldest  historical  monument  of 
Egypt,  built  of  inferior  stone,  but,  with  its  one  hundred  and 
ninety-six  feet  of  elevation,  maintaining  still  some  dignity. 
And  then  we  came  to  the  house  where  Mariette  Bey  had 
his  residence  during  the  years  when  he  was  carrying  on  his 
discoveries.  His  name  suggests  the  great  part  which  France 
has  played  in  solving  the  mysteries  of  Egypt.  Napoleon 
forced  the  sphinx  to  open  his  lips  and  yield  up  some  of  the 
buried  secrets ;  Champollion  unlocked  the  hieroglyphics, 
and  Mariette  Bey  set  himself  to  those  discoveries  which  have 
added  immensely  to  our  knowledge.  France  has  the  feel- 
ing that  Egypt  belongs  to  her.  Her  genius  and  money  dug 
the  Suez  Canal ;  her  language  is  widely  spoken  in  the  Nile 
valley,  and  it  is  not  unnatural  that  during  the  British  occu- 
pation she  is  restless  and  resentful. 

The  greatest  of  all  Mariette  Bey's  discoveries  was  the 
last  and  chief  interest  of  our  memorable  day.  I  refer,  of 
course,  to  the  tombs  of  the  sacred  bulls,  the  most  mon- 
strous, if  not  the  greatest,  of  all  Egyptian  monuments.  The 
worship  of  Apis,  or  the  sacred  bull,  is  extremely  ancient, 
and  was  reverence  offered  to  the  perpetual  creating  power 
of  the  Deity.  The  ancient  god  of  Memphis  was  Ptah,  and 
the  bull  was  his  sacred  animal.  The  bull  which  was  wor- 
shipped must  have  a  black  hide,  with  certain  distinctive 
marks  in  white.  When  this  sacred  bull  died,  his  body  was 
mummied  and  interred  with  divine  honors  in  a  square 
chamber  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock. 


2gS  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

The  serapeum  which  Mariette  discovered  in  1851  — his 
soul  thrilled  with  profound  astonishment  at  the  discovery  — 
is  a  subterranean  gallery  hewn  for  more  than  three  hundred 
feet  through  the  rock,  having  on  both  sides  of  it  forty  exca- 
vated chambers,  twenty-six  feet  in  height,  in  which  were 
the  huge  sarcophagi,  single  blocks  of  black  or  red  granite, 
thirteen  feet  in  length,  seven  in  width  and  eleven  in  height, 
each  with  a  weight  of  sixty-five  tons.  There  are  twenty- 
four  of  these  monstrous  coffins  still  remaining  ;  but  long  ago 
the  mighty  lids  were  raised  by  thieving  Arabs,  and  the  mum- 
mied animals,  with  all  their  treasures,  were  removed.  The 
ceremonies  attending  the  burial  of  a  sacred  bull  sometimes 
cost  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  !  As  our  party  walked 
through  the  subterranean  passage  to  look  into  these  cham- 
bers, the  burning  of  magnesium  wire  threw  a  strange,  bright 
glare  over  the  scene. 

In  the  long  ride  back  to  the  boat  and  on  the  return  voy- 
age down  the  Nile  I  had  leisure  to  reflect  on  what  we  had 
seen.  Two  things  became  clearer  than  ever  to  my  mind. 
One  is  this,  that  the  human  spirit,  without  the  direction  of 
an  authoritative  revelation  from  God,  is  liable  to  drift  off  into 
the  most  grotesque  absurdities.  Another  thought  was  this,  — 
a  thought  very  familiar  and  very  impressive  to  those  who 
have  explored  Egypt,  —  namely,  that  Moses  was  guided  by 
superhuman  wisdom  in  making  little  or  nothing  of  the  doc- 
trine of  immortality  in  the  early  teaching  of  the  emanci- 
pated Israelites.  Immortality  was  linked  in  their  memories 
with  the  grossest  superstitions.  What  they  needed,  first  of 
all,  was  faith  in  the  one  God,  and  a  knowledge  and  practice 
of  individual  and  national  righteousness. 

As  we  steamed  down  the  Nile  in  the  early  evening,  the 
large  full  moon  rose  above  the  palm-trees,  the  mud  villages, 
and,  as  we  neared  Cairo,  the  palaces  on  the  eastern,  or 
Arabian  shore.  It  was  our  last  opportunity  of  meeting  all 
together  our  friends  of  the  "  Midnight  Sun."  The  next 
day  was  a  day  of  rest  and  of  shopping  or  individual  sight- 
seeing.    Then  followed  Sunday,  when  I  had  the  pleasure  of 


THE  NILE  AND  MEMPHIS.  299 

preaching  at  the  American  Mission,  which  is  doing  a  great 
work  in  Egypt.  On  Monday  morning  La  Signora  and  I 
went  to  the  station  to  bid  good-by  to  our  fellow-voyagers 
who  were  to  take  the  train  to  Alexandria,  and  thence  sail 
on  their  homeward  journey.  We  shall  cherish  the  memory 
of  our  pleasant  days  with  so  many  pleasant  friends.  Noth- 
ing which  Mr.  Lunn  could  do  for  our  comfort  was  omitted, 
and  if  he  ever  sends  us  word  that  we  are  wanted  again  for 
a  voyage  on  the  "Midnight  Sun"  in  his  company,  we  shall 
try  to  persuade  ourselves  that  it  is  the  call  of  duty. 

Returning  to  the  Hotel  d'Angleterre,  we  transferred  our 
belongings  to  the  neighboring  Pension  Sima,  where  our  room 
opens  out  upon  a  beautiful  garden  of  mandarins,  oleanders, 
and  oranges,  and  where  at  the  ringing  of  our  bell  either 
Mohammed  or  Akmed  appears  with  a  salaam.  The  com- 
pany at  our  well-spread  table  is  English,  and  mostly  military. 

One  American  whom  I  had  hoped  to  see  in  Cairo,  Dr. 
Grant  Bey,  died  a  few  months  ago,  and  is  here  universally 
mourned.  He  was  an  Egyptologist,  and  will  be  remem- 
bered as  having  been  present  at  the  Congress  of  Religions, 
to  which  he  contributed  a  paper  on  the  "  Religious  Ideas  of 
the  Ancient  Egyptians."  Two  other  men,  who  were  pres- 
ent at  the  Parliament,  I  unexpectedly  met  at  the  Sunday 
services  in  the  American  Mission.  One  of  them  is  Chris- 
tophora  Jibara,  formerly  Archimandrite  of  Damascus.  He 
is  still  very  active  and  earnest  in  what  he  deems  his  chief 
mission,  persuading  Christians  to  give  up  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  which  prevents,  as  it  seems  to  him,  their  com- 
ing into  any  union  with  Mohammedans  and  Jews.  He  be- 
lieves that  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  and  wrought  a  gospel 
of  redemption.  Jibara  is  a  master  of  several  languages,  and 
I  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  him  to  employ  his  powers  of 
speech  in  preaching  a  positive  gospel,  instead  of  smiting  all 
his  life  at  a  dogma  which  has  worn  out  many  hammers. 

The  other  attendant  at  the  Parliament,  unexpectedly  met 
in  Cairo,  is  the  traveller  and  Chaldean  Archbishop,  Prince 
Nouri,  who   has  kindly  acted   as  my  interpreter  in  many 


300  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

interesting  interviews.  He  is  equally  ready  in  English, 
French,  Turkish,  Arabic,  Persian,  and  eight  other  languages. 
He  has  travelled  almost  everywhere,  and  I  doubt  if  there  is 
any  other  man  now  living  who  has  made  the  acquaintance 
in  their  homes  of  so  large  a  number  of  distinguished  people. 
Among  the  most  influential  persons  that  I  have  met  here  are 
Doctors  Nimr  and  Sarruf,  editors  of  an  Arabic  daily. 

But  besides  the  interest  in  the  people  whom  I  have  met, 
there  is  in  Cairo  the  endless  fascination  of  a  procession  of 
street  pictures.  There  is  the  donkey-boy,  good-naturedly 
urging  the  merits  of  his  beast  or  quietly  reposing  by  the 
animal's  side ;  there  is  the  sais,  or  runner,  barefooted 
and  barelegged,  with  his  embroidered  vest  and  gorgeous 
sash,  heralding  the  approach  of  some  pasha  or  English 
official ;  and  then  there  are  the  shops  and  markets  where 
bread,  nuts,  vegetables,  fruits,  and  all  sorts  of  hot  dishes 
are  sold  and  eaten ;  while  above  are  the  latticed  windows 
behind  which  the  hidden  women  are  probably  gazing  on 
this  same  panorama  of  Eastern  life.  We  have  here  equi- 
pages as  fine  as  those  of  Paris  or  New  York,  and  the  best 
cabs  in  the  world,  behind  which  comes  a  huge  camel  loaded 
with  branches  till  he  looks  like  a  moving  brush-heap.  Here 
are  the  Egyptian  police,  with  their  neat  gray  linen  uniforms, 
and  the  Egyptian  street-cleaners,  with  long  blue  gowns  and 
red  stripes  on  their  arms ;  and  here  are  beggars,  young  and 
old,  following  you  with  their  piteous  cries ;  shopkeepers 
soliciting  your  inspection  of  veritable  antiquities ;  British 
soldiers  with  their  red  coats  and  white  pith  helmets  ;  drago- 
mans standing  in  front  of  Shepheard's  or  some  other  hotel, 
ready  to  escort  you  to  old  Cairo  or  old  Sinai ;  and  veiled 
women  carrying  a  jar  of  water  on  the  head  or  a  dark- 
skinned  baby  on  the  shoulders,  or  possibly  both.  And 
here  are  the  kawasses  of  the  British,  American,  or  German 
consulate,  standing  gorgeous  in  their  rich  vestments ;  and 
here  are  blue  or  black  robed  men  lying  in  the  dirt  by  a 
wall,  fast  asleep,  their  faces  covered  to  protect  them  from 
the  flies  and  the  sun. 


THE  NILE   AND  MEMPHIS.  3OI 

Egypt  is  still  plagued  with  flies  during  the  day  that  are 
almost  as  tormenting  as  the  mosquitoes  during  the  night. 
Three  hundred  and  sixty-five  times  a  year  the  white  netting 
must  be  drawn  over  one's  bed  if  he  hopes  to  enjoy  many 
hours  of  happy  sleep.  Nearly  every  visitor  in  Cairo  very 
soon  purchases  a  fly-brush,  made  of  slender  strips  of  palm- 
leaf,  and  waves  it  faithfully  through  the  day.  And  who  has 
not  ached  to  brush  away  the  flies  which  everywhere  in  Egypt 
rest  undisturbed  on  the  faces  and  around  the  eyes  of  the 
dark-skinned  little  children.  It  seems  to  be  in  the  creed 
of  the  Egyptian  mother  that  washing  the  dirt  from  a  child's 
face  is  in  some  way  perilous.  With  the  accumulation  of 
dirt  comes  the  congregation  of  flies.  Down  the  street  walks 
the  half- veiled  Egyptian  woman,  and  astride  her  shoulder  is 
perched  the  six  months  or  year-old  darling,  resting  its  face 
on  the  top  of  the  mother's  head,  and  never  making  the 
least  effort  to  disturb  the  pestiferous  insects  that  have  fas- 
tened upon  it. 

But,  compared  with  Constantinople,  Cairo,  especially  now 
during  the  British  occupation,  is  bright,  clean,  and  decent. 
And  no  other  city  of  the  world  combines  with  the  brilliant 
and  picturesque  life  of  the  Orient  of  to-day  proximity  to  a 
life  so  stupendous  and  venerable  as  that  represented  by  the 
pyramids  and  by  the  tombs  of  Memphis.  But  we  are  not 
eating  the  lotus  of  the  Nile  nor  drinking  the  poppies  of 
Cathay,  for  every  one  of  our  days  has  had  its  duties  as 
well  as  its  dreams. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

SIGHTS   AND    PEOPLE    IN  CAIRO. 

HP  HE  most  interesting  bits  of  sight-seeing  in  Cairo  were 
-^  visits  to  the  howling  dervishes  and  the  Moslem  Uni- 
versity. The  faith  of  Islam  does  not  reveal  an  attractive  or 
even  a  respectable  side  in  the  present  performances  of  the 
dervish  saints.  The  holy  circus  is  given  up  in  the  summer- 
time, when  foreign  visitors  are  absent,  and  is  resumed  at  a 
period  when  the  European  and  American  spectators  return. 
The  stamp,  "For  revenue  only,"  is  on  the  whole  perform- 
ance, and  the  visitor  who  has  paid  the  usual  fee  for  admis- 
sion receives  a  new  shock,  when,  at  the  end  of  the  howling, 
the  son  of  the  sheik,  who  has  just  been  shouting  the  name 
of  Allah  in  an  ecstasy  of  devotion,  stands  at  the  door  of 
exit  and  impudently  asks  for  "  bakshish,"  like  a  common 
beggar. 

The  monkish  retreat,  where  the  dervishes  live  and  hold 
their  services  on  Friday  afternoons,  is  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile,  near  the  island  of  Roda.  We  went  early  and  secured 
seats  close  to  the  raised  platform,  covered  with  rugs  and 
skins,  on  which  the  holy  men  are  seated.  More  than 
twenty-five,  young  and  old,  with  faces  of  various  colors, 
from  the  deepest  black  to  a  complexion  almost  fair,  en- 
gaged in  the  service,  which  lasted  more  than  an  hour,  be- 
ginning with  moderate  exclamations  and  ending  in  fearful 
bellowings  and  epileptic  fits.  The  participants  formed  a 
circle,  their  faces  turned  toward  each  other,  and  all  their 
words  and  motions  were  in  concert. 

There  may  have  been  some  sincere  fanatics  among  them, 
but  unmistakable  fraud  and  low  animalism  were  written  on 


SIGHTS  AND  PEOPLE  IN  CAIRO.  303 

the  faces  of  others.  An  American  court  of  justice  would  be 
inclined  to  sentence  most  of  them  to  jail  after  brief  trial. 
The  concerted  howling  of  pious  exclamations  grew  louder 
and  louder,  and  the  bodies  of  the  dervishes  swayed  back- 
ward and  forward  with  rhythmic  regularity.  The  voices 
and  actions  would  die  down  only  to  be  resumed  with 
greater  violence.  Drums  and  tomtoms  were  brought  in, 
the  dervishes  rose  to  their  feet,  threw  off  some  of  their 
garments,  and  began  to  sway  and  scream  with  increasing 
rapidity  and  turbulence.  Two  or  three,  who  had  very  long 
black  hair,  loosened  it  from  the  turban  and  presented  a 
horrible  appearance  as  they  threw  themselves  backward  and 
forward,  groaning  out  in  deep  gutturals  the  one  pious  syl- 
lable on  which  all  united.  As  the  dancing  dervishes  had 
not  resumed  their  services,  the  son  of  the  sheik  gave  us  a 
few  whirls  amid  the  final  hubbub,  during  which  two  of  the 
ecstatics  fell  down  in  violent  epilepsy.  Several  babies, 
whose  mothers  had  previously  lost  a  child,  were  carried 
around  amid  these  obstreperous  saints,  so  as  to  insure 
the  continuance  of  the  children's  lives. 

A  certain  reverence  for  all  forms  of  true  piety,  however 
gross  and  superstitious,  is  becoming  in  us  all,  but  in  the 
case  I  have  described  reverence  was  largely  overwhelmed 
by  disgust.  We  should  have  hardly  been  surprised  if  some 
of  these  dervishes  had  drawn  their  knives  on  the  Christian 
visitors  and  begun  a  little  private  massacring  and  plunder- 
ing on  their  own  account.  If  this  be  the  climax  of  Moslem 
devotion,  I  much  prefer  the  simpler  and  often  very  impres- 
sive forms  of  it  which  I  have  seen  in  the  mosques. 

I  was  glad  to  get  a  more  favorable  view  of  the  Moham- 
medan world  by  visiting  the  famous  University  of  Cairo. 
Accompanied  by  the  Syrian  principal  of  the  Church  of 
England  School,  who  kindly  offered  to  act  as  our  dragoman, 
and  provided  with  tickets  of  admission  which  we  had  pur- 
chased at  the  hotel,  we  drove  through  the  crowded  streets 
in  the  Arabic  part  of  Cairo,  and  saw  hundreds  of  students, 
with  white  turbans  on  their  tarbooshes,  going  in  the  same 


304  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

direction.  Scores  of  Arab  book-shops  began  to  appear,  — 
little  storehouses  piled  with  pamphlets.  The  university  is  a 
great  mosque  with  a  pillared  court,  an  immense  square  en- 
closure, on  the  pavements  of  which  thousands  of  scholars 
are  seated,  usually  in  groups,  gathered  about  a  teacher. 
Provided  with  slippers  and  accompanied  by  a  blue-robed 
guide,  we  walked  about  among  these  acres  of  pupils,  many 
of  whom,  as  it  was  rather  early  in  the  morning,  were  eating 
a  simple  breakfast  of  bread  and  beans.  The  buzz  of  the 
vast  throng  who  were  memorizing  aloud  was  that  of  in- 
numerable human  bees,  gathering  the  honey  of  the  Koran. 

These  men  come  from  all  parts  of  the  Moslem  world, 
from  the  Congo  to  the  Ganges,  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the 
sources  of  the  Nile.  Here  they  learn  Arabic  grammar,  the 
Arabic  scriptures,  Mohammedan  law,  and  Mohammedan 
philosophy.  Modern  science  is  not  a  part  of  the  curricu- 
lum. I  was  told  by  an  American  scholar  in  Cairo  that 
sheiks  in  this  university  believe,  on  the  authority  of  the 
Koran,  that  the  sun  revolves  around  the  earth.  Certainly 
the  teaching  here  does  not  emancipate  the  mind.  It  is 
mediaeval  and  mechanical.  The  memory  is  enormously 
cultivated,  but  not  the  reason.  Some  pupils  remain  here 
twenty  years,  endeavoring  to  master  the  intricacies  of  an 
Arabic  grammar,  which,  insisting  on  the  perfection  of  the 
Koran,  lays  down  grammatical  rules  to  which  there  may  be 
hundreds  of  exceptions,  all  of  which  must  be  faithfully 
memorized. 

Most  of  these  scholars  are  to  be  missionaries.  Mount- 
ing their  camels,  they  will  carry  the  simple  teachings  of 
Islam  to  the  idolatrous  and  savage  tribes  of  Central  Africa. 
There  is  something  really  sublime  in  their  unswerving  faith 
and  absolute  devotion.  Small  indeed  is  the  impression 
which  a  divided  and  corrupt  Christendom  has  made  on  the 
stubborn  haughtiness  of  the  Moslem  world.  I  have  had 
many  conversations  in  Constantinople  and  Cairo  with 
Christians  of  experience  as  to  the  success  and  failure  of 
Christian   work  among  Moslem  populations.     There  have 


u 


w 


SIGHTS  AND   PEOPLE   IN  CAIRO.  305 

been  genuine  conversions  to  Christianity  among  the  Mos- 
lems of  Egypt,  but  the  number  is  small,  and  I  have  a 
conviction  that  there  must  be  vast  improvements  in 
Christendom  and  a  long  education  of  Moslem  peoples 
under  beneficent  Christian  governments  before  any  large 
victories  can  be  secured.  This  Moslem  school  of  mission- 
aries shows  that  Islam  has  a  great  life  in  it  and  before  it. 
I  have  seen  the  leading  universities  of  America,  Great 
Britain,  and  Europe,  —  Harvard,  Oxford,  Berlin,  Paris,  — 
but  the  University  of  Cairo,  older  than  Oxford  and  larger 
than  Berlin,  appears  to  me  the  most  striking  and  picturesque 
educational  and  religious  phenomenon  that  I  ever  wit- 
nessed. There  are  from  eight  thousand  to  ten  thousand 
students  in  attendance,  and  the  British  government  looks 
upon  this  vast  concourse  not  as  a  body  of  scholars,  but  as  a 
dangerous  crowd  of  fanatics.  We  saw  the  holes  made  by 
English  bullets  during  the  riot  of  last  summer,  when  a  vic- 
tim of  the  cholera  was  removed  by  violence  from  the 
university. 

Quite  in  contrast  with  the  noise  of  the  dervishes  and  the 
crowds  in  the  university  was  a  service  which  I  attended  one 
afternoon  in  the  Greek  Basilica.  An  archbishop  and  per- 
haps six  priests  were  present,  but  no  congregation  of  wor- 
shippers until  Prince  Nouri  and  I  entered  the  beautiful 
church  and  with  bowed  heads  listened  to  the  chanting  of 
Greek  prayers.  In  a  few  minutes  the  archbishop  beckoned 
us  to  take  episcopal  seats  in  the  chancel  opposite  himself. 
For  half  an  hour  I  remained,  trying  to  join,  at  least  in  spirit, 
in  the  ancient  service,  but  my  mind  was  busy  with  thoughts 
not  only  of  the  long  line  of  faithful  confessors  from  the  days 
of  Athanasius,  whose  piety  had  found  expression  in  such 
devotions,  but  also  of  the  manifest  unfitness  of  the  methods 
prevailing  in  these  Oriental  churches  to  reach  and  regenerate 
the  unbelieving  and  corrupted  life  of  to-day.  How  can  a 
church  in  whose  buildings  one  may  see  a  painted  God  the 
Father  and  a  painted  God  the  Son  united  in  crowning  the 

Virgin  Mary,  while  a  painted  God  the  Holy  Spirit  hovers 

20 


306  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

over  all,  expect  to  convert  the  stern,  unidolatrous,  spiritual 
monotheism  of  Islam?  The  Biblical  lectures,  some  of 
which  I  heard  at  the  American  Mission  in  Cairo,  given  by 
the  Reverend  W.  W.  White  of  the  Moody  Institute,  ad- 
dressed to  the  minds  sometimes  of  hundreds,  appeared  to 
me  more  in  the  line  of  worthy  and  adequate  Christian  work. 
I  felt  like  saying  of  such  Christian  teaching,  as  Joseph  Parker 
once  said  of  the  Mosaic  account  of  creation  :  "  It  is  simple, 
sublime,  sufficient." 

The  United  Presbyterian  Church  had  in  Egypt  more 
children  under  its  care  last  year  than  are  found  in  the  newly 
opened  schools  of  the  Egyptian  government.  Selim  Pasha, 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  told  me  to-day  that  the  best 
educational  work  in  Egypt  is  that  done  by  the  American 
Mission.  It  is  systematic,  well  organized,  thorough,  and 
last  year  enrolled  in  its  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  schools 
ten  thousand  eight  hundred  and  seventy-one  pupils,  of  whom 
nearly  twenty-six  hundred  were  girls.  More  than  one-fifth 
of  the  pupils  were  Mohammedans.  This  great  work  reaches 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  near  the  First  Cataract.  Of 
course  in  a  land  where  the  intellectual  darkness  has  been 
truly  Egyptian,  schools  are  a  fundamental  necessity.  But 
the  other  agencies  employed  by  the  American  Mission  are 
evangelistic  and  medical.  The  Sunday-school  is  here  seen 
in  its  efficiency,  with  over  six  thousand  pupils.  A  book 
department  through  its  twenty-seven  colporteurs  sold  last 
year  more  than  sixty-two  thousand  volumes.  The  women 
of  Egypt  are  reached  by  Bible  teachers  who  visit  the 
homes.  There  are  forty-nine  special  workers,  converted 
women,  who  have  admission  to  Egyptian  households,  teach- 
ing their  sisters  to  read,  and  to  read  the  Bible.  There  were 
nearly  eighteen  hundred  regular  pupils  last  year  among  the 
women  reached  in  this  effective  way.  The  Gospel  is  thus 
doing  its  old-time  blessed  work  in  the  enlightenment  and 
elevation  of  womanhood.  In  Moslem  households,  where 
polygamy  prevails,  all  its  evils  abound,  — jealousies,  divisions, 
and  inevitable  degradation.     The  husband  can  dismiss  an 


SIGHTS  AND  PEOPLE   IN  CAIRO.  307 

old  wife  with  his  word,  and  take  a  new  one  at  his  pleasure. 
Boys  are  not  taught  to  respect  their  mothers,  who  allow  them- 
selves to  be  disobeyed,  slapped,  and  kicked  by  their  sons, 
whom  they  regard,  in  true  Moslem  fashion,  as  the  lords 
of  creation.  The  school  work  in  villages  might  be  largely 
increased  if  the  mission  had  more  native  women  to  send  as 
teachers ;  but  the  girls  educated  at  the  schools  are  in 
such  demand  as  wives  that  enough  teachers  cannot  be 
provided. 

But  of  course  church  work  has  not  been  neglected  by 
this  wisely  conducted  mission,  which  now  has  thirty-seven 
organized  congregations,  with  five  thousand  and  four  com- 
municants. These  native  Christians  are  world-famous  for 
their  liberality,  having  contributed  last  year,  for  religious 
purposes,  more  than  $13,500.  Those  who  know  what 
Egyptian  poverty  is,  will  appreciate  the  full  meaning  of  this 
statement.  The  Mission  Training  College  is  at  Assyut, 
which  enrolls  four  hundred  and  twenty  students.  Professor 
White  has  conducted  seventeen  meetings  in  Assyut.  He 
informs  me  that  he  was  much  gratified  by  what  he  saw  and 
heard.  Every  day  was  full  of  interest.  The  attendance 
was  large,  and  the  attention  inspiring.  Evangelists  and  the- 
ological students  were  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  country 
for  this  Conference,  and  thus  the  whole  land  of  Egypt  was 
in  a  real  sense  touched.  He  is  much  pleased  by  the  dili- 
gence with  which  the  children  are  studying  English,  for  a 
knowledge  of  English  is  a  great  step  toward  modern  light 
and  Christian  convictions. 

The  other  morning  we  were  present  at  the  opening  of 
the  day-school,  and  saw  its  five  hundred  children  together, 
or  rather  separated,  for  a  red  curtain  divides  the  three 
hundred  boys  from  the  two  hundred  girls.  All  the  boys  but 
three  had  fezes  on  their  heads,  and  they  presented  a  specta- 
cle which  I  shall  long  remember,  not  only  on  account  of  its 
picturesqueness,  but  also  on  account  of  its  vital  relations  to 
the  future  of  this  old  land.  On  Thanksgiving  Day  we  at- 
tended a  reception  at  the  Mission  House,  at  which  about 


308  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

twenty-five  of  our  countrymen  were  present ;  and  the  force 
with  which  we  sang  "  America  "  was  so  tremendous  that  the 
old  Sphinx  on  the  edge  of  the  desert  must  have  pricked  up 
his  stony  ears. 

I    have  seen  many  Egyptian  villages.      The   Nile   rolls 
beside  them,  the  palm-trees  tower  above  them  stately  and 
fruitful,  and  around  them  are  the  fields,  as  Dean  Stanley 
said,  "  unutterably  green."     But  each  mud  village  where  the 
fellaheen  —  men,  women,  and  children  —  swarm  like  ants, 
is  a  spectacle  of  dirt,  —  dirt  on  hands  and  faces  and  feet,  dirt 
in  the  air,  dirt  in  the  home.     The   theory  that  the  religion 
of  Islam,  with  its  required  ablutions,  makes  people  physically 
clean  is  not    supported    by   facts.     The    condemnation  of 
Mohammedanism  is  found  in  the  condition  of  its  wretched, 
toiling  millions.     Palaces  and  mud-huts  make  the  picture 
of  Egyptian  Islam,  with  a  few  black  tents  of  Bedouin  hover- 
ing on  the  edge  of  the  desert.     One  cannot  imagine  these 
poor  people  continuing  the  vile  and  wretched  conditions  of 
their  lives  after  having  received  into  their  minds  and  hearts 
the  enfranchisement  of  the  Christian  Gospel.     That  Gospel 
inspires  self-reverence,  and  lifts  men  out  of  the  dirt  in  which 
the    Egyptian  finds  it  so  pleasant   to   lie   down.      In  the 
school  of  the  American  Mission  here,  the  children  are  taught 
to  be  clean.     Of  the  two  hundred  girls  in  the  school  more 
than  sixty  are  boarders,  and  we  saw  the  rooms  where  they 
live.     Scrupulously   neat    and    orderly   they  all  were.     As 
Miss  Kyle  showed  us  their    sleeping-rooms,    dining-room, 
reception-room,  and  kitchen,  I  felt  that  we  did  not  need  any 
other  evidence  of  a  pure  Christianity  so  far  as  our  religion 
comes  into   contrast  with  Mohammedanism,  and  the  cor- 
rupted forms  of  the  old  Church  of  Egypt.     These  girls  are 
taught  to  take  care  of  their  rooms,  beds,  clothes,  persons, 
food.     Girls   have   been   taken  out  of  the  school  by  their 
mothers,  because  they  were  obliged  to  comb  their  hair  every 
day,  the  mothers  insisting  that  once  a  week  was  enough  ! 

We  have  seen  and  learned  a  great  deal  of  the  missionary 
and  educational  work  which  for  forty  years  has  been  car- 


SIGHTS  AND   PEOPLE   IN  CAIRO.  309 

ried  on  by  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  in  Egypt.  The 
large  Mission  House  near  Shepheard's  Hotel  has  been  a 
second  home  to  us,  and  we  have  had  refreshing  Christian 
fellowship  in  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  prayer-meet- 
ings, and  other  services  of  the  mission,  and  in  conference 
with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Watson,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Harvey,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  John  Giffen,  the  Reverend  J.  P.  White  and  Mrs.  White, 
Miss  Smith,  Miss  Thompson,  and  others.  Last  Sunday 
evening  we  attended  the  Christian  Endeavor  prayer  meet- 
ing, at  which  seven  nationalities  were  represented.  Follow- 
ing this  was  the  evening  service,  at  which  I  preached. 
There  are  often,  during  the  season,  which  extends  from 
Christmas  to  Easter,  as  many  as  fifteen  hundred  American 
visitors  at  one  time  in  Cairo.  All  of  these  would  do  well 
to  become  personally  acquainted  with  the  effective  Chris- 
tian work  done  at  the  American  Mission.  Thanks  to  the 
presence  and  power  of  the  British  government  in  Egypt, 
there  have  been  no  interruptions  nor  disturbances  of  the 
Christian  labor,  which  now  extends  its  blessings  from  the 
Delta  as  far  south  as  Assouan.  There  have  been  anxieties. 
Mohammedan  fanaticism  slumbers  in  Egypt.  The  Mos- 
lems sympathize  with  the  Sultan  and  the  other  murderers 
of  the  Armenian  Christians.  But  I  thank  God  that  no  such 
cloud  hangs  over  the  Nile  as  that  which  I  saw  darkening 
the  Bosporus.  No  words  that  my  pen  can  wTrite  will  ever 
adequately  praise  the  faith,  wisdom,  courage,  and  self-sacri- 
fice of  those  American  missionaries  and  missionary-teach- 
ers, those  able  and  devoted  evangelists,  and  those  scholarly 
ministers  whom  we  saw  in  Constantinople,  and  who  felt 
that  their  position  and  work  were  insecure  so  long  as  the 
jealous  powers  of  Europe  continue  to  act  with  such  inhu- 
man indifference  and  cruel  selfishness.  In  the  midst  of 
such  a  state  of  affairs  as  now  exists,  the  American  mission- 
aries and  teachers  have  been  carrying  on  their  multiplied 
labors  with  constant  fidelity.  As  in  Turkey,  Syria,  and 
Egypt,  we  have  seen  America  represented  by  unselfish 
Christian  scholars,  physicians,  scientists,  explorers,  and  mis- 


3IO  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

sionaries,  while  other  nations  are  represented  by  merchants 
and  soldiers,  we  have  felt  a  noble  pride,  and  some  of  our 
English  friends  have  shared  with  us  the  feeling  that  the 
great  Republic  stands  for  things  higher  than  military 
conquest  or  profitable  trade. 

I  have  visited  the  venerable  Cyril,  Patriarch  of  Egypt, 
the  head  of  the  Orthodox  Coptic  church.  His  patriarchal 
palace  is  hard  by  the  Coptic  Cathedral  and  University. 
I  was  accompanied  on  this  visit  by  Prince  Nouri.  I 
am  told  by  the  editors  of  the  "  Mokattam "  that  Prince 
Nouri  is  very  eloquent  in  Arabic,  and  I  can  believe  it,  for 
he  took  the  brief  Saxon  sentences  which  I  addressed  to  the 
old  Coptic  Patriarch,  and  elaborated  and  decorated  them 
with  such  Oriental  magnificence  that  the  eyes  of  his  Holi- 
ness glistened  with  pleasure.  There  were  several  Coptic 
priests  and  bishops  present  at  the  interview,  and  they  bowed 
and  kissed  his  hand  after  the  fashion  which  prevails  in  the 
papal  court.  Sherbet  and  coffee  were  brought  in  as  usual, 
and  the  kindly  Patriarch  appeared  anxious  to  prolong  the 
visit.  He  expressed  his  warm  approval  of  all  efforts  to 
bring  Christians  closer  together,  gave  me  his  apostolic  ben- 
ediction, and  said  that  he  should  earnestly  pray  that  my 
work  in  India  might  be  for  the  glory  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  As  we  left  the  palace,  we  met  the 
newly  chosen  Coptic  Archbishop,  Jacobus,  who,  having 
given  us  other  cups  of  coffee,  made  us  promise  to  visit  the 
Coptic  University,  which  we  did  on  the  following  day,  when 
we  had  more  coffee  before  we  were  presented  to  Wahby 
Bey,  the  president  of  the  university,  which  numbers  eight 
hundred  students.  Still  other  cups  of  coffee  awaited  us 
here.  Whenever  we  entered  a  class-room,  all  the  young 
men  rose,  and  held  their  hands  to  their  red  fezes  in  true 
Eastern  fashion.  I  was  asked  to  examine  classes  in  Eng- 
lish and  French,  and  I  found  the  boys  quick  and  apt  in  their 
replies.  It  was  rather  amusing,  however,  to  hear  a  young 
man  of  eighteen  read  from  an  English  Second  Reader  the 
Story  of  Jumbo  !     The  Coptic  Christians  of  Egypt,  as  the 


SIGHTS  AND  PEOPLE   IN  CAIRO.  3  1 1 

Patriarch  informed  us,  number  a  million,  and,  allied  with 
them,  is  the  great  Abyssinian  church,  several  of  whose  tall, 
dark-skinned  representatives  we  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting. 

Another  of  my  pleasant  visits  in  Cairo  was  a  call  on  the 
family  of  the  late  Dr.  Van  Dyck,  of  Beirut,  who  are  spend- 
ing the  winter  in  Egypt.  Dr.  Van  Dyck's  reputation  as  an 
Arabic  scholar  is  world-wide,  and  I  have  met  a  young  man 
from  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  who  told  me  that  he 
studied  geography  from  an  Arabic  text-book  which  the 
great  Beirut  scholar  had  written.  I  was  glad  to  see  a  por- 
trait of  this  grand  old  man,  seated  on  the  leafy  veranda  of 
his  summer  home,  his  whole  appearance  giving  one  the 
impression  that  he  belonged  to  the  Oriental  rather  than  the 
Occidental  world.  The  printing-presses  of  Beirut  furnish 
the  Arabic  text-books  for  mission-schools  in  Egypt,  and  one 
of  the  graduates  of  our  college  there,  Mr.  N.  Moghabghab, 
who  had  charge  of  an  Oriental  exhibition  at  the  World's 
Fair,  called  for  me  one  morning,  and  showed  me  through 
the  Church  Missionary  School  of  Cairo,  of  which  he  is  prin- 
cipal. The  purpose  of  the  Church  society,  who  are  evan- 
gelical and  low-church  in  their  ideas,  is  to  reach  chiefly  the 
children  of  Mohammedans ;  and  I  learned  that  one-half  of 
their  one  hundred  and  fifty  scholars  are  from  Moslem 
families. 

Two  of  the  most  enjoyable  visits  during  my  stay  in 
Cairo  were  made  on  Selim  Hamaoui  Pasha,  the  Khedive's 
Minister  of  Education,  and  the  editor  of  "  El-Falah,"  an  Ara- 
bic newspaper  of  wide  circulation.  This  courteous  gentle- 
man is  a  member  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  church,  and 
deeply  interested  in  all  efforts  to  bring  the  churches  into 
fraternal  relations.  It  was  this  which  interested  him  in  the 
Religious  Congresses  in  Chicago,  full  reports  of  which  he 
published  in  his  journal.  He  gave  me  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  his  wife  and  daughters,  two  of  whom  had  attended 
the  American  Mission  School.  Selim  Pasha  was  very  gen- 
erous in  his  kindnesses.  He  escorted  me  to  the  Khedive's 
Palace  to  present  me  to  his  Royal  Highness,  and  regretted 


312  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

to  learn  that  the  Khedive  had  suddenly  left  Cairo  and 
would  not  return  until  the  day  after  our  departure.  Then 
he  drove  to  the  residence  of  Lord  Cromer,  the  real  ruler 
of  Egypt ;  and  I  was  glad  of  an  opportunity  of  expressing 
to  this  courageous  diplomat  the  gratitude  which  Americans 
feel  for  his  many  services  to  our  mission  work  in  Egypt. 
He  expressed  his  warm  appreciation  of  the  importance  of 
this  work,  and  his  regard  for  Drs.  Watson  and  Harvey,  who 
are  at  the  head  of  it.  England  has  not  succeeded  in  win- 
ning the  love  of  the  Egyptian  people  ;  but  English  rule  has 
abolished  forced  labor,  mitigated  cruel  punishments,  se- 
cured justice,  and  prevented  much  of  that  rapacious  taxation 
which  ground  the  fellaheen  into  the  mud. 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  all  my  experiences  in 
Cairo  was  an  acquaintance  made,  during  two  visits,  with 
Sophronios,  the  venerable  Greek  Patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
who  spends  however  only  a  part  of  his  time  in  that  city. 
We  usually  think  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Pope  Leo  as  the 
most  remarkable  men  now  living,  but  they  are  juvenile  com- 
pared with  this  Patriarch,  whom  1  saw  walking  with  vigorous 
step  and  whose  conversation  was  full  of  bright,  humorous, 
and  earnest  intelligence.  Sophronios  is  the  oldest  prelate 
of  the  Christian  world.  He  informed  us  that  he  was  born 
in  Constantinople  in  1792,  and  that  next  month  he  will 
be  one  hundred  and  four  years  of  age.  For  eighty-five 
years  he  has  been  a  priest,  for  seventy-six  years  a  bishop, 
for  sixty-eight  years  an  archbishop,  for  sixty-two  years  a 
metropolitan,  and  for  thirty-two  years  a  patriarch.  For 
four  years  he  was  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  thus 
held  the  highest  office  in  the  Orthodox  Greek  church. 
For  twenty-eight  years  he  has  been  Patriarch  of  Alexandria. 
He  is  the  successor,  in  direct  patriarchal  line,  of  Athanasius. 
His  full  title  is  "  Pope  and  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  and 
Oecumenical  Judge  of  the  Christian  Church."  Surely  he 
is  the  Great  Pyramid  among  all  living  prelates  !  His  con- 
versation was  in  Turkish,  and  Prince  Nouri  again  served  as 
interpreter.     The  Patriarch  had  on  a  long  fur-lined  robe, 


SOPHRONIOS,    GREEK    PATRIARCH    AT    ALEXANDRIA. 


SIGHTS  AND  PEOPLE   IN  CAIRO.  313 

and  on  account  of  this  and  of  his  age,  he  reminded  me  of 
Rembrandt's  picture  of  old  Jacob  in  the  Cassel  Gallery. 
One  of  my  first  questions  was  that  which  Pharaoh  put  to 
Jacob,  "How  old  art  thou?"  He  expressed  a  very  lively 
interest  in  the  reunion  of  Christendom,  and  believed  that  it 
could  be  brought  about  only  by  a  Council  of  all  the  Patri- 
archs and  Bishops  of  the  churches,  with  no  Roman  Pontiff 
demanding  supremacy  over  those  who  represent  the  prim- 
itive churches.  He  told  us  that  he  had  known  six  of  the 
Sultans  and  all  the  rulers  of  modern  Egypt,  excepting  the 
first,  Mohammed  Ali,  whom,  however,  he  might  have  known. 
On  the  fine  portrait  of  himself  which  he  presented  to  me 
are  seen  four  decorations  of  the  first  rank,  given  him  by  the 
rulers  of  Turkey,  Russia,  Greece,  and  Germany.  He  said,  "  I 
pray  for  the  peace  of  the  nations."  I  remarked  to  him  that 
he  must  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  human  suffering.  In  re- 
ply he  told  us  of  his  going,  as  Metropolitan,  to  the  island  of 
Scio,  a  few  years  after  the  massacres,  between  1820  and 
1830,  if  I  remember  rightly.  He  said  that  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  Christians  on  that  island  were  murdered 
by  the  Turks,  and  as  many  more  driven  into  exile,  while 
only  a  few  thousand  remained.  It  is  evident  that  the 
Turkish  policy  to-day  is  in  sublime  consistency  with  the 
policy  of  seventy  years  ago.  The  Alexandrian  Patriarch 
appeared  as  if  he  were  equal  to  many  more  years.  I  have 
seen  men  of  eighty  who  looked  much  older. 

The  Coptic  Patriarch  and  Coptic  Archbishop,  —  together 
with  several  Coptic  bishops,  as  well  as  the  Greek  Patriarch 
and  the  Greek  Archbishop,  —  were  men  of  fine  dignity  and 
true  courtesy,  gentle  and  tolerant  in  spirit ;  the  inheritors,  I 
should  call  them,  of  ancient  Christian  forms  that  no  longer 
are  highly  serviceable.  They  were  full  of  the  true  brotherly 
spirit  to  all  followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  whatever  name  or 
ecclesiastical  rank.  The  Roman  Catholic  church  of  course 
recognizes  the  validity  of  the  orders  of  these  Eastern  bishops, 
who  now  hold  what  were  the  primitive  seats  of  Christianity. 
It  has  been  interesting  and  amusing  to  note  how  much  more 


314  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

catholic  and  fraternal  are  the  great  dignitaries  of  the  East- 
ern church  than  are  sometimes  the  Anglican  priests,  who 
have  vainly  striven  to  secure  from  the  Roman  Pontiff  a 
recognition  of  the  validity  of  their  orders.  I  have  met 
English  High  Church  curates  of  small  ability  and  no  repu- 
tation who  were  much  more  pretentious  and  ecclesiastically 
exclusive  than  the  venerable  Sophronios. 

I  was  anxious  to  see  the  better  and  more  liberal  side  of 
Mohammedanism,  and  so  was  glad  of  an  opportunity  to 
spend  an  hour  with  a  learned  and  progressive  Moslem,  a 
lineal  descendant  of  the  first  Caliph,  Abu  Bekr,  and  him- 
self the  chief  of  the  religious  organization  of  Islam  in  Egypt. 
Es  Seyd  El-Bakri  lives  in  a  palace  which  was  formerly  the 
home  of  the  present  Khedive,  and  he  received  me  on  my 
two  visits  with  genuine  courtesy.  He  belongs  to  that  small 
section  of  the  Moslem  world  that  heartily  believed  in  the 
Parliament  of  Religions,  and  he  is  much  interested  in  se- 
curing for  the  Paris  Parliament,  if  it  should  be  held,  an 
adequate  representation  of  Islamic  scholarship  and  faith. 

One  peculiarity  of  Oriental  visits  is  that  coffee  is  inva- 
riably served.  Another  peculiarity,  at  least  of  Egyptian 
social  life,  is  that  the  topic  of  the  weather  is  eliminated 
from  the  conversation.  There  usually  is  no  weather,  for 
every  day  is  like  every  other.  Superficial  observers  claim 
that  the  lack  of  anything  like  society  among  Egyptians  is 
due  to  the  prevalent  seclusion  of  women.  But  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  that  it  arises  from  the  absence  of  weather. 
There  was  one  day,  just  one  day,  when  Cairo  had  weather. 
It  rained,  and  rained  hard ;  and  since  the  streets  have  no 
gutters  or  sewers,  they  presented  what  every  Englishwoman 
calls  a  "  nasty  "  appearance.  The  mud  on  the  feet  of  the 
veiled  women  became  much  thicker  than  the  coverings  on 
their  faces. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

FROM    EGYPT   TO    INDIA. 

f^N  December  third  we  left  Cairo  for  Port  Said.  Our  visit 
^-^  had  been  a  rest  to  the  body  and  a  refreshment  to  the 
mind.  We  had  seen  old  Egypt  and  the  men  who  make 
modern  Egypt,  —  the  missionaries,  teachers,  editors,  Chris- 
tian and  Moslem  dignitaries,  and  some  of  the  officials, 
among  whom  Selim  Pasha,  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
holds  a  foremost  place  in  my  grateful  memory.  Some  peo- 
ple contend  that  Lord  Cromer  is  the  actual  Khedive  of 
Egypt,  while  others  hold  to  the  primacy  and  potency  of 
Abbas  II.  But  the  best-informed  persons  all  recognize 
that  the  real  Khedive  of  Egypt  is  the  firm  of  Thomas  Cook 
&  Son.  It  was  they  that  carried  the  British  troops  to  Don- 
gola,  and  it  is  they  who  would  have  carried  the  English 
soldiers  to  the  deliverance  of  Khartoum  and  the  rescue  of 
Gordon,  and  have  got  them  there  on  time,  if  Mr.  Gladstone's 
government  had  only  been  wise  enough  to  buy  its  Gordon- 
rescue  and  Khartoum-relief  expedition-tickets  at  their  office. 

Our  farewells  to  prince,  pasha,  and  preacher  who  saw  us 
off  at  the  station  were  spoken  regretfully.  The  gardens  and 
villas  about  the  city  were  passed,  the  slender  minarets  of 
the  beautiful  Citadel  Mosque,  and  later  the  awesome  Pyra- 
mids disappeared  from  sight,  and  we  were  out  amid  the 
trees  and  fields  and  watercourses,  the  oxen,  the  donkeys, 
the  camels,  the  corn,  and  the  cotton,  the  flocks  of  white 
ibises,  and  the  black-legged  farmers,  and  mud-walled  villages, 
and  all  the  indescribable  greenness  and  fertility  of  the 
Delta. 

In  three-quarters  of  an  hour  we  reached  the  town  of 
Benha,  famous  for  its  grapes  and  mandarins ;  and  here  the 


3 16  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

train  turned  eastward,  stopping  again  at  Zakazik,  a  city  of 
twenty  thousand  people,  the  centre  of  the  Egyptian  cotton- 
trade,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  the  ancient  Eubastis,  where 
Herodotus  saw  erected  to  Aphrodite  the  finest  temple  in 
the  world,  which  sometimes  drew  seven  hundred  thousand 
people  to  its  unclean  festivals.  And  then  we  passed  into 
the  land  of  Goshen,  swarming  with  people,  as  fertile  to-day 
as  when  Joseph  placed  his  brethren  here  and  came  down 
from  his  chariot  to  meet  his  father  Jacob.  What  a  country 
for  Israel  to  leave  to  plunge  into  the  Sinai  desert !  We 
crossed  the  fresh-water  canal,  an  old  channel  reopened  to 
bring  the  waters  of  the  Nile  to  the  twenty-five  thousand 
workmen  employed  on  the  Suez  Canal,  who  had  previously 
been  furnished  with  drinking-water  brought  by  sixteen  hun- 
dred camels.  The  train  carried  us  through  Tel-el-Kebir, 
where  Arabi  met  his  defeat  in  1882,  and  through  Ramses, 
near  the  sight  of  Pithom,  a  treasure  city  built  by  Israelites 
for  Pharaoh  and  recently  uncovered  by  the  explorer  Neville. 
Before  reaching  Tel-el-Kebir  we  had  come  to  the  edge 
of  the  Arabian  desert,  and  fields  of  sand  and  fields  of  grain 
presented  their  strange  contrast.  With  a  fine  view  of  the 
Bitter  Lakes,  through  which  the  Suez  Canal  passes,  we  came 
finally  to  Ismailiya,  a  very  important  town  in  the  days  of 
Lesseps ;  and  here  we  were  changed  to  a  steam  tramway, 
which,  following  the  course  of  the  Suez  Canal,  brought  us 
early  in  the  evening  to  Port  Said.  Before  reaching  that 
town  we  had  seen  great  ships,  veritable  leviathans,  lifting 
their  backs  above  the  desert  rim  of  the  landscape  and 
throwing  lines  of  electric  light  five  miles  over  the  smooth 
waters  of  the  channel.  How  Joseph  would  have  been  sur- 
prised to  see  them,  and  to  be  told  that  these  black  and  fire- 
breathing  vessels  were  carrying  wheat  to  relieve  the  famine 
of  India  !  Our  train  had  traversed  the  length  of  the  Balah 
and  Menzaleh  lakes,  —  great  shallow  sheets  of  water,  aflame 
in  the  sunset,  and  the  homes  of  vast  flocks  of  pelicans  and 
herons.  Our  rest  that  night  was  in  the  Hotel  de  France, 
close  to  the  quay  of  the  Messageries  steamers. 


FROM  EGYPT  TO  INDIA.  317 

The  next  morning  we  saw  what  little  of  interest  is  discov- 
erable in  this  new  town  of  about  forty  thousand  people, 
among  whom  are  twelve  thousand  Europeans,  mostly  French. 
The  Governor  of  the  Suez  Canal,  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting,  sent  an  English  captain  and  sailors  of  the  police 
force  to  take  us  aboard  our  ship.  The  "  Natal "  of  the  Mes- 
sageries  line  arrived  at  about  noon  from  Marseilles,  and 
after  coaling  resumed  her  voyage  late  in  the  afternoon.  Our 
cabin  had  been  secured  last  July,  and  fortunately  was  in  the 
centre  of  the  ship  and  on  the  port  side.  The  canal,  which 
is  a  hundred  miles  in  length,  was  passed  in  about  fifteen 
hours.  Vessels  here  move  very  slowly,  so  that  the  wash 
may  not  injure  the  embankment.  It  was  with  a  strange 
feeling  that  I  passed  for  the  second  time  through  the  great 
canal  which  has  changed  the  course  of  the  world's  commerce, 
separating  Africa  and  Asia  only  to  unite  them  more  closely, 
and  which  has  brought  London  more  than  seven  thousand 
miles  nearer  to  Bombay  than  in  the  old  times,  when  vessels 
rounded  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  This  great  achievement 
absorbed  one  hundred  million  dollars.  But  over  three 
thousand  vessels,  of  more  than  ten  millions  of  tons,  and 
carrying  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pas- 
sengers, pass  every  year  over  this  watery  highway  of  the 
nations. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  December  fifth  we  were  off  the 
town  of  Suez,  and  after  a  very  brief  delay,  during  which 
letters  were  received  and  sent,  the  voyage  was  resumed. 
On  the  African  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez  towered  the  steep 
mountain-range  of  Attaka,  which  shut  in  the  fleeing  Israel- 
ites, and  on  the  Arabian  side  was  "  that  great  and  terrible 
wilderness  "  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula.  Between  stretched 
the  waters  through  which  occurred  the  Exodus,  "  the  great- 
est event  before  the  Christian  era."  Whether  the  passage 
of  the  Red  Sea  took  place  opposite  Suez  or  farther  north, 
the  main  geographical  features  are  the  same.  Those  features 
are  mountains,  desert  and  sea,  the  three  distinctive  elements 
also  in  the  scenery  of  the  peninsula  between  the  Gulf  of  Suez 


3  IS  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

and  the  Gulf  of  Akaba,  the  "  wilderness  of  wandering."  What 
a  region  for  the  discipline  of  a  nation  !  What  a  field  for  the 
display  of  divine  power  and  mercy  directed  to  moral  ends  ! 
Before  that  hour  when  the  Israelites  passed  through  the 
waters,  the  drama  of  human  life,  whether  in  Egypt,  India, 
or  Babylon,  appeared  to  consist  of  unconnected  scenes. 
But,  as  Bunsen  has  profoundly  said,  "  History  was  born  on 
that  night  when  Moses  led  forth  his  people  from  Goshen." 
Since  then,  the  drama  has  been  continuous,  progressive,  and 
sublimely  significant.  In  place  of  meaningless  cycles,  there 
was  from  that  hour  orderly  advancement.  The  main  course 
of  human  development  ran  through  these  waters,  and  yonder, 
on  our  left  to  the  wells  of  Moses,  and  on  to  Sinai,  to  Jeru- 
salem, to  Christian  Europe,  to  Christian  America.  That 
this  mighty  stream,  the  main  current  of  human  history,  is 
destined  in  the  next  great  age  to  gather  to  itself  the  auxil- 
iary and  subsidiary  currents,  is  beginning  to  be  evident  to 
Christian  and  other  students  of  human  affairs. 

As  we  sailed  down  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  the  range  of  Mount 
Sinai  lifted  its  red  and  jagged  peaks  into  sight.  The  moun- 
tain of  the  giving  of  the  law  was  hidden,  but  the  range  itself, 
the  scene  of  such  tremendous  events,  is  one  of  the  strangest 
and  most  impressive  spectacles.  Here  were  great  peaks 
of  over  nine  thousand  feet  in  height,  treeless,  verdureless, 
rugged  masses  of  rock,  fit  symbols  of  those  severe  moral 
truths  which  are  the  foundation  stones  of  true  religion. 
But  remembering  the  Christian's  position,  I  could  but  say  in 
my  heart,  "  We  are  not  come  unto  Mount  Sinai,  but  unto 
Mount  Zion."  The  next  day  both  Africa  and  Arabia  had 
disappeared.  Our  ship  was  in  the  middle  of  the  Red  Sea. 
Its  coasts  are  lined  with  dangerous  coral  reefs  and  islands. 
But  though  Arabia  was  invisible  to  the  eye,  I  could  but 
remember  that  the  great  sandy  peninsula  lay  there  to  the 
east,  the  birthplace  of  Mohammedanism.  There  was  Jedda, 
the  rich  seaport  of  Mecca,  the  chief  market  for  coffee  and 
coral  and  pearls,  and  the  meeting-place  for  Mohammedan 
pilgrims,  flocking  hither  from  the  Malayan  Archipelago  and 


FROM  EGYPT  TO  INDIA.  319 

from  Mozambique,  and  from  every  town  in  Africa  and  Asia 
where  the  Arabian  prophet  is  reverenced  as  the  chief  mes- 
senger of  God.  And  not  fifty  miles  from  that  port  is  Mecca 
itself,  which,  like  Medina,  the  sacred  city  of  Mohammed's 
exile,  is  forbidden  ground  for  the  feet  of  Christians. 
When  I  was  in  Cairo,  some  Arabic-speaking  friends  gave 
me  what  I  never  before  had  seen,  —  a  photograph  of 
Mecca,  showing  the  black  Kaaba  and  the  pilgrim's  tents 
gathered  around  that  holy  shrine. 

The  Red  Sea,  fourteen  hundred  miles  in  length,  receives 
no  rivers.  Both  sides  of  it  are  desert,  and  the  heat  which 
the  traveller  experiences  down  the  length  of  this  caldron 
is  usually  very  intense.  But  everything  is  done  to  provide 
for  human  comfort.  Pre-eminently  was  this  true  on  the 
"Natal,"  our  strong  ship.  Rarely  —  or  never,  I  may  truly 
say  —  have  I  enjoyed  sea  travel  so  keenly.  The  vessel 
itself  was  as  steady  as  a  rock.  There  was  none  of  that 
rolling  and  pitching  which  our  frisky  Atlantic  steamers 
practise  on  comparatively  still  waters.  Our  cabin  was 
large  and  central.  The  ship  was  not  crowded,  and  there 
was  plenty  of  room  beneath  the  huge,  thick  double  awn- 
ings covering  the  long  deck.  The  service  was  quick  and 
excellent.  The  table  was  the  most  satisfactory  that  I  have 
ever  known  at  sea.  Six  meals  a  day  were  provided  for 
those  who  cared  for  bread  and  coffee  before  breakfast,  tea 
and  cakes  at  four  in  the  afternoon,  and  iced  drinks  and 
biscuits  from  eight  to  eleven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Red 
and  white  wine,  Marsala  beer,  and  brandy  are  provided  free 
at  all  the  meals  and  at  any  time.  But  I  discovered  that 
those  who  suffered  greatly  from  the  heat  were  those  who 
partook  most  freely  of  these  beverages.  Lemons,  ice, 
good  water,  and  fruit  were  also  provided  in  abundance. 

On  the  second  day  in  the  Red  Sea  great  white  punkas 
began  to  wave  above  the  dining-tables,  adding  to  our  com- 
fort. The  punka-puller  was  a  Chinaman,  whom  I  occa- 
sionally relieved,  to  show  him  how  the  work  ought  to  be 
done.     Our  ship  is  one  of  the  smaller  and  older  vessels, 


320  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

but  no  one  could  crave  anything  better.  The  quiet,  gentle- 
manly French  officers  do  their  work  without  any  fuss. 
With  their  spotless  white  garments,  they  make  you  feel  cool. 
The  ship's  bells  are  not  clanging  all  the  while  on  the  "  Natal," 
and  you  are  not  pestered  with  prohibitions.  After  what  I 
have  reported  about  the  wines,  perhaps  this  remark  is  unne- 
cessary. Quietness  and  freedom  are  the  rule.  The  only 
important  prohibition  is  one  requiring  gentlemen  not  to 
appear  on  deck  in  nightgowns  and  slippers  except  between 
the  hours  of  nine  p.  M.  and  nine  a.  m.  !  Of  course  the  baths, 
which  one  can  have  at  any  time,  are  a  great  comfort.  The 
voyage  from  Port  Said  to  Bombay  is  very  expensive  on  all, 
the  good  lines.  Our  cabin,  for  two,  cost  eighty-four  pounds 
ten  shillings. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  fifth  day  from  Suez  we  reached 
Aden  in  the  Straits  of  Bab-el-Mandeb.  This  has  been  an 
English  harbor  and  fortress  since  1839.  It  occupies  the 
crater  of  an  extinct  volcano,  and  is  one  of  the  hottest 
places  in  this  world  and  perhaps  in  any  other.  A  barren 
mountain  rises  back  of  it,  reminding  me  of  Dante's  mount 
of  purgatory.  The  fortifications,  clock  tower,  signal  station, 
like  the  mast  of  a  ship  rising  from  a  tall  barren  peak,  made 
the  view  from  the  deck  strangely  picturesque.  There  are 
no  trees  and  grass  in  sight,  and  most  of  the  town  is  hidden 
behind  the  hills.  More  than  half  the  passengers  went 
ashore  in  boats  rowed  by  strong  black  men,  and  drove  up 
the  winding  road  to  the  tanks,  where  water  is  stored  for 
this  dry  and  thirsty  region.  The  town  is  made  up  of  a 
motley  crowd  of  English  soldiers,  sailors  of  many  nations, 
Parsis  and  other  Indians,  Jews,  Portuguese,  Egyptians,  wild 
Bedouins,  horrible-looking  Africans  from  Zanzibar,  and 
Arabs  from  the  whole  savage  region  round  about.  I  did 
not  land,  as  I  had  not  yet  purchased  my  pith  helmet. 

Our  ship  was  boarded  by  black  barbarians  and  others 
who  offered  us  ostrich  boas  and  feathers,  ostrich  eggs,  and 
well-made  Arabian  baskets.  Tall,  slim,  dark  men  thronged 
the  deck  and   the   saloon,  jingling   great   piles  of  Indian 


FROM  EGYPT  TO  INDIA.  321 

rupees  to  exchange  for  napoleons  and  sovereigns.  A  silver 
rupee  should  be  worth  two  shillings ;  but  this  piece  of 
changeable  value  is  worth  now  only  one  shilling  and  three- 
pence. There  were  also  offered  large  silver  coins  bearing 
the  head  of  the  Abyssinian  King  Menelek. 

The  funniest  sight  of  our  twelve  hours  in  Aden  was  the 
rusty-headed  negro  boys,  who  rowed  around  the  ship,  some 
of  them  in  little  dug-outs,  and  dove  for  coins,  which  sink 
slowly.  Sometimes  the  sea  had  on  it  only  empty  boats, 
floating  oars,  and  the  white  soles  of  upturned  feet.  At 
Aden  we  left  several  of  our  passengers.  Among  them  was 
a  genial  and  intelligent  French  Catholic  Bishop  of  Aden, 
with  a  Franciscan  Brother  and  a  few  Sisters.  Two  others 
who  left  us  there  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bent,  famous  travellers 
and  explorers.  They  have  journeyed  a  good  deal  in  Arabia, 
and  will  now  explore  the  Arabian  Desert,  so  far. as  the 
savage  tribes  will  permit.  At  midnight  we  moved  on,  and 
the  next  day  were  out  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  enjoying,  if  not 
Milton's  "  Sabean  odors  from  the  spicy  shores  of  Araby 
the  blest,"  still,  what  has  been  equally  grateful,  a  beautiful 
sea  and  the  most  refreshing  of  breezes. 

Before  closing  this  chapter  I  must  unveil  the  little  world 
of  human  life  which  gathers  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  on 
an  Oriental  steamer.  It  has  more  color  and  more  variety 
than  the  world  with  which  one  becomes  familiar  in  Atlantic 
voyages.  While  the  officers  and  sailors  are  French,  quite 
a  number  of  the  servants  are  Chinese,  Hindu,  and  Malay. 
The  stokers  are  black  men  from  Aden.  On  the  forward 
deck  are  gathered  about  sixty  Mohammedans  from  Bombay 
and  from  Singapore.  They  have  made  the  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca,  and  came  on  board  our  ship  at  Aden.  I  know  of 
only  four  Americans  among  the  passengers,  including  our- 
selves. One  of  these  is  a  veteran  traveller  from  California, 
a  lame,  soldierly  old  gentleman,  talking  both  French  and 
English,  and  now  on  his  way  to  Borneo.  The  other  is  the 
wife  of  an  English  captain.  She  has  just  returned  from 
America,  and  has  her  three  little  children  with  her.     She 

21 


322  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

had  a  severe  hemorrhage  the  night  we  passed  through  the 
Suez  Canal.  Her  husband  has  been  in  the  Egyptian  army, 
and  was  sick  with  the  cholera.  At  Aden  she  learned  that 
the  transport  which  takes  him  back  to  India  had  just  left 
for  Bombay.  Opposite  me  at  the  table  is  an  English 
lawyer  who  has  been  seven  years  in  Siam.  On  my  right  is 
a  French  gentleman  who  has  travelled  much  in  the  East,  and 
is  now  on  his  way  to  Tonquin  and  San  Francisco.  I  asked 
him  why  he  did  not  travel  on  a  P.  and  O.  boat.  He  replied, 
"  There  is  nothing  to  eat  but  grilled  bones  and  ham  and 
eggs." 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

BOMBAY   AND   THE   RIDE   TO    BENARES. 

/~\N  the  morning  of  December  fifteenth  we  rose  rather 
^-^  early,  and  soon  saw  the  mountainous  range  back  of 
the  coast-line  of  the  great  peninsula,  and  began  to  realize 
that  India  was  before  us,  —  India,  ancient  almost  as  Egypt, 
a  continent  in  itself,  down  whose  mountain-passes  came 
the  primeval  settlers  and  conquerors,  over  whose  plains 
have  swept  the  invading  armies,  —  Greek,  Scythian,  Afghan. 
Tartar,  French,  and  English  ;  India,  the  spoil  of  the  nations 
and  the  theatre  for  the  activity  of  all  the  great  religions. 

Bombay,  built  mostly  on  an  island,  looked  beautiful  from 
the  sea.  We  turned  southward  and  entered  the  harbor, 
which  lies  back  of  the  city.  As  we  drew  nearer,  the  great 
English  buildings  loomed  large  before  us.  The  old  fort, 
the  lighthouses,  and  a  long  array  of  shipping  in  the  harbor 
all  gave  the  impression  of  bigness  and  importance, —  an  im- 
pression which  was  not  lessened  when  we  caught  sight  of 
Mr.  Rockefeller's  great  oil-tanks.  At  last  the  ship  came  to 
anchor,  perhaps  half  a  mile  from  the  docks.  A  variety 
of  tenders  drew  near,  on  which  the  passengers  and  their 
luggage  were  taken,  but  slowly  and  with  infinite  confusion. 
A  package  of  letters  was  soon  placed  in  my  hands,  and  we 
were  at  once  in  communication  with  all  the  world  again. 
At  Aden  a  bundle  of  Reuter's  telegrams  was  brought  aboard, 
and  we  heard  of  President  Cleveland's  Message  and  other 
things  of  interest.  But  our  own  private  world  had  been 
shut  out  from  us  since  the  morning  of  our  reaching  Suez. 
Now,  however,  the  old  avenues  of  communication  are 
reopened.     The  letter  which  is  torn  open  first  of  all  brings 


324  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

us  photographs  of  our  little  children,  and  all  Asia  fades 
away  for  a  moment  in  the  vision  of  something  far  closer  to 
our  lives.  And  here  are  letters  from  Hindus,  representa- 
tives of  the  Brahmo-Somaj,  Buddhists,  and  others,  wel- 
coming us  to  India,  and  a  messenger  leaves  a  printed 
welcome  from  the  Jains  with  the  information  that  a  dele- 
gation is  waiting  for  us  at  the  docks.  As  we  were  busy 
with  our  trunks,  the  American  missionaries,  the  Reverend 
Robert  A.  Hume  and  his  brother  the  Reverend  E.  S.  Hume, 
made  their  appearance,  and  with  no  reluctance  we  put 
ourselves  into  their  vigorous  and  kindly  hands.  We  and 
our  luggage  were  taken  on  board  a  rather  large  boat,  and 
we  were  rowed  over  the  broad  harbor  by  dark-faced  Indians 
of  the  Moslem  faith,  whose  oars  ended  in  a  broad  circle. 
After  we  had  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  stone  stairway 
leading  up  from  the  water  to  the  landing,  we  were  met  by 
a  very  courteous  committee  of  Jains,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  give  us  greeting  in  behalf  of  the  Jains  of  India, 
who  number  about  one  and  a  half  millions.  As  Mr.  Gandhi, 
who  represented  the  Jains  at  the  Chicago  Congress,  was  a 
guest  at  my  house,  very  kindly  and  grateful  mention  was 
made  of  this  hospitality  in  the  printed  address  which  was 
presented  in  a  beautiful  ivory  and  silver  box.  Then,  in 
accordance  with  the  graceful  Hindu  custom,  long  garlands 
of  white  flowers  intertwined  with  gilt  tinsel,  were  placed 
about  our  necks,  and  bouquets  were  put  into  our  hands. 
This  ceremony  would  have  occurred  on  board  the  ship  had 
the  plague  not  been  raging  in  Bombay,  and  strict  orders 
given  prohibiting  Indians  from  going  on  to  the  vessel. 
One  of  our  American  friends  saw  one  hundred  and  fifty 
bodies  cremated  in  one  day.  Business  has  been  very 
much  lessened.  A  pall  hangs  over  the  city.  The  colleges 
are  scarcely  able  to  get  any  classes  together. 

Arriving  at  Mr.  Hume's  house,  we  found  the  boys  and 
girls  of  the  American  Mission  School  drawn  up  in  line,  one 
hundred  and  sixty  in  number,  who  surprised  and  thrilled  us 
by  singing,  — 


BOMBAY  AND    THE  BIDE    TO  BENARES.      325 

"  My  country  't  is  of  thee, 
Sweet  land  of  liberty." 

Such  a  song  in  a  far  land,  coming  from  such  voices  gave 
me  one  of  the  gladdest  and  deepest  thrills  that  I  have  ever 
known.  After  a  few  minutes  we  sat  down  to  luncheon,  our 
first  meal  in  India,  at  which  we  learned  not  only  that  bana- 
nas are  here  called  plantains,  and  that  grape-fruit  which  is 
red  inside  is  called  pomelo,  but  also  that  barefooted,  dark- 
legged  Indian  servants,  moving  noiselessly  about  the  room, 
are  as  faithful  and  satisfactory  attendants  as  one  can  have 
at  table.  We  soon  became  acquainted  with  our  own  ser- 
vant, who  had  already  been  secured  for  the  India  pilgrimage. 
He  is  a  large,  serious,  very  dark,  middle-aged  man  from 
Poona,  named  Marutee,  which  is  also  the  name  of  the 
Hindu  Monkey-god.  He  is  to  accompany  us  in  all  our 
travels,  providing  his  own  food  and  lodging,  and  receiving 
thirty-five  rupees  a  month.  After  luncheon  we  were  taken 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hume's  beautiful  school,  with  one  hundred 
and  sixty  pupils,  both  boys  and  girls.  They  sang  to  us  in 
English  and  in  Marathi.  Two  little  girls  garlanded  our 
necks  and  wrists  with  flowers,  and  two  little  boys  brought  us 
bouquets,  after  which  I  made  a  heartfelt  address  full  of 
gratitude  and  congratulation.  The  Indian  teachers  were 
then  presented,  and  Mrs.  Hume  conducted  us  through  the 
dormitory,  where  we  inspected  the  boys'  clean  beds,  and 
felt  happy  and  thankful  that  these  children  were  delivered 
from  the  dirt  which  is  one  of  the  main  afflictions  of  Bom- 
bay and  an  underlying  cause  of  the  plague.  The  pupils 
in  the  American  School  are  children  of  Indian  Christians, 
and,  as  Mr.  Hume  said,  know  nothing  about  "  heathenism  " 
by  personal  experience.  At  five  o'clock  on  this  busy  and 
eventful  day,  a  reception,  admirably  arranged  by  Mrs.  Hume, 
was  given  us  at  her  home,  attended  by  over  forty  mis- 
sionaries of  the  city,  at  which  an  address  of  welcome  was 
given  by  Dr.  Dugald  Mackichan,  of  Wilson  College. 

That  evening  we  left  Bombay  for  Benares,  a  journey  of 
two  nights  and  two  days.     The  Victoria  Station,  where  we 


326  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

saw  immense  numbers  of  people  belonging  to  all  the  sects 
and  divisions  of  India,  is  regarded  as  the  handsomest  rail- 
road station  in  the  world.  On  the  night  of  our  departure 
from  Bombay  it  was  certainly  the  liveliest  and  most  pictur- 
esque. In  this  journey  to  Benares  we  realized  fully  two 
things,  —  that  the  midday  is  like  midsummer,  and  that  the 
midnight  is  like  midwinter.  There  are  no  sleepers.  But 
we  had  bought  pillows  and  had  with  us  our  steamer  rugs, 
and  managed  to  escape  colds  in  the  night-time,  and  by 
keeping  always  in  the  shade  we  avoided  sunstroke  in  the 
daytime.  Very  comfortable  meals  are  provided  at  certain 
stations,  and  are  telegraphed  for  by  the  guard  having 
charge. 

On  the  morning  of  December  sixteenth,  I  looked  out  for 
the  first  time  on  the  fields  of  India.  During  the  night  we 
had  climbed  the  coast-range,  and  the  dawn  revealed  to  us 
the  features  of  a  landscape  reminding  me  of  the  vast  prairies 
of  my  own  country,  except  that  hills  now  and  then  appeared 
on  the  horizon,  some  of  them  jagged  and  wild.  Clumps 
and  rows  of  trees,  all  of  them  strange  to  us,  diversified  and 
colored  the  dry,  brown  landscape  with  patches  of  green. 
One's  first  feeling  was  the  wideness  and  bigness  of  India,  — 
a  striking  contrast  to  Egypt,  Palestine,  and  Greece.  But  the 
evidences  of  drought  were  painfully  present,  and  the  shiver- 
ing, half-starved,  and  half-naked  figures  which  in  the  early 
morning  came  out  of  the  wretched  mud  villages  or  gath- 
ered at  the  pretty  stations  of  the  Great  Indian  Peninsula 
Railroad,  showed  us  that  famine  is  impending.  But  a  poor 
ragged  girl,  hardly  able  to  stand,  would  not  take  from  us  a 
part  of  the  ample  and  delicious  luncheon  which  Mrs.  Hume 
had  provided.  Hungry  American  children  would  have 
scrambled  for  a  piece  of  the  cake  which  this  Hindu  girl 
sadly  refused.  But  she  picked  up  the  half-anna  which  I 
threw  to  her,  equivalent  to  six  pie  or  one  cent.  From  all 
this  La  Signora  evolved  the  first  generalization  applicable 
to  India.  It  is  this  :  that  starving  Hindu  children  will  take 
pie  but  not  cake  from  the  hands  of  Christians  !    In  our  long 


BOMBAY  AND    THE  RIDE    TO  BENARES.       T>27 

ride  through  Central  India  we  became  familiar  with  the 
look  of  the  landscape  and  the  more  interesting  look  of  the 
people,  a  people  of  the  most  various  types  and  costumes. 
The  colors  and  the  garments  and  the  faces  and  the  noises 
at  one  of  the  great  railway  stations  of  India  make  you  feel 
how  tame  and  commonplace  was  the  Midway  Plaisance. 
Such  impossible  greens,  blues,  purples,  reds,  and  yellows  ! 
Such  headdresses  of  every  size  and  shade  and  shape  !  We 
saw  Mohammedans  who  had  dyed  their  beards  and  hair 
orange  color,  and  wore  long  gold-embroidered  robes,  and 
walked  barefooted  or  in  stockingless  slippers.  But  to  me 
the  most  evident  fact  in  India  thus  far  has  not  been  any 
splendor  of  foliage  or  flowers,  nor  the  appearance  of  mon- 
keys in  fields,  nor  the  new  kinds  of  vegetation,  nor  even 
the  general  poverty  everywhere  apparent.  To  me  the  most 
evident  fact  in  India  is  the  human  leg.  It  is  usually  bare 
to  the  hip.  Men  with  their  heads  and  bodies  covered  with 
white  cotton  cloth  walk  bare-legged  through  field  and 
street.  Brown  legs,  slim  legs,  black  legs,  hairy  legs,  legs 
larger  at  the  knees  than  at  the  thigh,  so  slim  and  spare  that 
you  wonder  how  the  body  is  supported,  legs  of  boys  and 
young  men  and  old  men,  of  little  girls  with  sweet  faces  and 
dark  fawn- like  eyes,  —  these  are  the  objects  which  the  non- 
Christian  populations  of  India  thrust  before  the  eyes  of 
travellers.  It  seems  incredible  that  in  the  frigid  morning 
hours  these  Hindus  can  be  comfortably  warm.  One  reason 
that  people  can  live  on  so  little  in  this  populous  land  is  the 
abolition  of  trousers.  If  India  should  suddenly  be  con- 
verted to  Christianity,  the  demand  for  pantaloons  would 
enrich  hundreds  of  wholesale  clothiers  in  New  York  and 
London. 

Crossing  the  Jumna  by  the  finest  railway  bridge  in  India, 
we  arrived  at  Allahabad  on  the  morning  of  December 
seventeenth.  This  city  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
people  is  the  seat  of  the  government  of  the  Northwest 
Provinces  and  Oudh.  It  stands  not  far  from  the  junction 
of  the   Ganges  and  the  Jumna,  and  is  interesting  for  the 


328  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

great  fort  built  here  by  Akbar ;  for  three  large  mausoleums 
in  a  beautiful  garden  near  the  station,  which  we  were  able 
to  visit ;  for  the  Pillar  "of  the  Buddhist  Emperor  Asoka,  cov- 
ered with  his  famous  edicts,  dating  more  than  two  hundred 
years  before  Christ ;  and  also  for  the  Mela,  or  popular  re- 
ligious fair,  which  in  the  month  of  January  brings  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  pilgrims  to  encamp  on  the  sandy  plain 
between  the  Jumna  and  the  Ganges,  and  to  bathe  in  those 
sacred  rivers.  At  Mogul  Serai,  which  is  nine  hundred 
and  thirty  miles  from  Bombay,  we  left  our  train  for  another, 
which  brought  us  in  half  an  hour  to  Benares.  Crossing  the 
steel  bridge  over  the  majestic  and  sacred  Ganges,  we  caught 
our  first  view  of  the  venerable  city  which  is  Jerusalem, 
Mecca,  and  Rome  all  combined,  to  the  devout  populations 
of  India,  two  hundred  millions  of  whom  still  hold  to  the 
ancestral  faith. 

Rising  from  the  broad  current  of  the  Ganges  on  its  left 
bank  are  miles  of  palaces  and  temples,  with  broad  stairways 
descending  to  the  sacred  shore,  which  make  a  unique  and 
striking  picture.  Above  all  this  architecture,  and  in  con- 
trast with  all,  springs  high  in  the  air  the  great  mosque, 
built  by  the  terrible  Mogul  Emperor  Aurangzeb,  the  Moslem 
iconoclast,  who  destroyed  nearly  all  the  Hindu  temples  of 
idolatrous  Benares.  But  this  great  emperor,  who  for  forty- 
nine  years  ruled  the  Mogul  dominion  and  stretched  it  to 
its  widest  limits,  could  not  uproot  Hinduism  and  its  per- 
petual fascination.  This  bigoted  oppressor  of  the  princes 
and  people  smote  fiercely  at  Benares,  and  I  have  seen  in 
its  streets  tops  of  temples  which  his  soldiers  had  broken 
off,  and  faces  of  idols  which  they  had  mutilated.  But 
Benares  boasts  to-day  more  than  three  thousand  important 
Hindu  shrines,  while  nearly  every  Hindu  house  belonging 
to  a  well-to-do  man  has  its  own  temple  and  gods  almost 
innumerable.  Still,  the  Moslems  constitute  one-fourth  of  a 
population  of  two  hundred  thousand,  and  Aurangzeb's 
mosque  is  the  most  conspicuous  object  in  Benares.  Some 
one  has  said  of  it  that  its  two  minarets,  rising  above  this 


BOMBAY  AND    THE  BIDE    TO  BENARES.       329 

inflorescence  of  temples,  spring  straight  upward,  white 
against  the  blue  of  the  sky,  with  the  ardor  of  a  prayer,  with 
the  impetuosity  of  a  cry ;  and  one  perceives  in  them  the 
fervent  work  of  a  simple,  resolute,  monotheistic,  and  ardent 
race. 

Before  reaching  Benares  we  made  the  acquaintance  on 
the  train  of  Mr.  W.  S.  Caine,  for  many  years  a  member  of 
Parliament,  and  the  author  of  "  Picturesque  India."  He 
has  made  four  visits  to  this  city,  and  I  heard  him  deliver 
one  of  the  best  of  temperance  lectures  in  the  town  hall.  He 
is  wisely  anxious  that  drinking  habits  should  not  become 
fastened  upon  the  Indian  peoples.  A  flourishing  temperance 
society  exists  in  Benares,  which  was  started  by  that  world- 
encompassing  traveller  and  toiler  in  the  good  cause,  Mrs. 
Leavitt.  I  became  acquainted  with  the  President  of  this 
Society,  Babu  R.  K.  Chandhuri,  —  an  estimable  gentleman, 
who  had  given  up  Hinduism. 

At  the  station  we  were  met  by  our  host,  the  Reverend 
Arthur  Parker,  of  the  London  Mission,  and  within  his  house 
we  spent  five  days.  The  compound  of  this  mission  encloses 
a  church  building  in  the  Greek  style  of  architecture,  the  mis- 
sion-school building,  and  the  broad-verandahed,  one-story 
house  of  the  missionary's  family.  Mrs.  Parker  gave  us  a 
sight  of  the  compound  school,  with  its  two  hundred  poor 
children,  mostly  girls.  Some  of  them  were  nearly  naked ; 
most  of  them  underfed.  It  breaks  one's  heart  to  look  at 
their  poverty  and  wretchedness,  to  think  of  the  conditions 
under  which  they  live,  and  to  remember  how  little  life  has 
to  offer  them.  Their  happiest  hours  are  those  spent  in  the 
school,  where  they  are  taught  to  read  and  sing.  Mrs.  Bar- 
rows saw  also  the  school  for  high-caste  girls  of  the  London 
Mission,  and  visited  two  Zenanas. 

On  the  evening  of  our  arrival  I  met  and  addressed 
about  thirty  of  the  missionary  workers.  More  than  two 
thousand  in  Benares  are  now  under  regular  Christian  influ- 
ences. Many  more  are  reached  by  street  preaching,  in 
which  the  women  missionaries    are    quite    as    active    and 


330  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

successful  as  the  men.  A  statement  having  been  printed 
in  America  that  no  Aryan  in  India  ever  was  converted  to 
Christianity,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  saw  a  converted  Brahman, 
a  catechist  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  preaching  in 
one  of  the  streets  not  far  from  the  bathing-ghats. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

BENARES. 

TV  /TY  days  in  Benares  were  among  the  busiest  that  I  have 
ever  known.  Besides  a  lecture  on  Shakespeare  de- 
livered in  the  London  Mission  College,  I  preached  twice 
on  Sunday,  December  twentieth,  and  lectured  on  the  Par- 
liament of  Religions  in  the  Town  Hall.  On  Monday  I 
made  an  address  on  "Reading"  to  the  boys  of  the  high 
school,  and  said  a  few  brief  words  to  the  children  of  the 
compound  school.  The  lecture  on  Sunday  night  was  an 
interesting  experience,  and  was  my  first  opportunity  of  talking 
religion  to  a  Hindu  audience.  The  cantonment  where  the 
English  residents  are  found  is  perhaps  two  miles  from  the 
city,  and  we  drove  about  so  much  that  it  seemed  wise  to 
hire  a  carriage  by  the  day.  The  carriage  bill  for  five  days 
was  twenty  rupees,  or  about  six  dollars.  I  mention  this  as 
an  illustration  of  the  general  cheapness  of  labor  in  India. 
A  tailor's  wages  are  about  eight  rupees  a  month.  A  San- 
scrit pundit  in  the  London  Mission  College  receives  twenty 
rupees  a  month,  and  the  Moslem  teacher  of  Persian  and 
Arabic  twenty-eight  rupees. 

I  made  three  visits  to  the  bathing-ghats  on  the  Ganges, 
getting  my  first  near  view  of  them  from  the  observatory, 
a  lofty  building  near  the  edge  of  the  river.  We  climbed  the 
stone  staircases  to  the  roof  of  this  structure,  which  was  built 
in  the  eighteenth  century  by  the  order  of  the  Mogul  emperor, 
who  appointed  Jay  Sing,  a  famous  astronomer  of  that  time,  to 
reform  the  astronomical  tables.  This  is  one  of  five  observa- 
tories erected  by  him  in  different  parts  of  India.  Interest- 
ing, indeed,  are  the  immense  stone  instruments,  —  the  mural 


332  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

quadrant,  the  sun  dials,  and  other  devices  on  an  enormous 
scale  with  which  his  work  was  carried  on.  The  view  of  the 
ghats  from  the  observatory  is  a  most  extraordinary  scene. 
But  we  came  much  closer  to  it  by  taking  a  boat  which 
looks  like  a  diminutive  Noah's  ark.  Seated  on  the  top  of 
this,  and  shading  our  eyes  from  the  morning  sun,  we  were 
rowed  up  and  down  the  holy  stream,  gazing  in  rapt  astonish- 
ment at  the  thousands  of  bathers  who  had  come  down  to 
the  Ganges.  It  seemed  as  if  the  whole  city  were  taking  an 
ablution  and  saying  its  morning  prayers. 

Here  was  half-naked  humanity  in  swarms,  —  old  men 
with  bald  heads,  women  of  every  age,  brown  figures  in  in- 
exhaustible variety.  Here  were  the  Brahmans  at  their 
morning  devotions,  repeating  the  prayers  which  for  three 
thousand  years  have  been  spoken  to  the  rising  sun  and  to 
the  sacred  river  :  "  O  Ganges,  daughter  of  Vishnu,  thou 
springest  from  Vishnu's  foot.  Thou  art  beloved  by  him. 
Remove  from  us  the  stains  of  sin  and  of  birth."  With 
minute  care  the  Brahman  goes  through  the  prescribed  ritual. 
We  saw  hundreds  taking  an  internal  ablution,  lifting  the 
water  from  the  stream  to  the  mouth.  On  the  water's  edge 
the  worshippers  uttered  the  solemn  syllables  of  some  divine 
name.  We  saw  multitudes  standing  in  the  stream,  with 
faces  toward  the  sun,  and  then  dipping  themselves  again 
and  again  beneath  the  cold  surface.  Thousands  were  drying 
their  bodies  or  rinsing  their  clothes.  Higher  up,  and  over- 
looking the  bathing,  were  the  "  Sons  of  the  Ganges,"  or  the 
guardians  of  these  vast  ablutions.  Seated  under  great  straw 
umbrellas  on  platforms,  they  overlook  the  crouching,  ges- 
ticulating, praying,  bathing,  dripping,  ejaculating  throngs. 
Every  person  holds  in  his  hand  a  brass  bowl,  which  shines 
like  a  sun.  The  movements  and  attitudes  of  many  of  the 
figures  on  the  bank  appear  to  be  those  of  insanity.  The 
spectacles  which  one  beholds  as  he  moves  up  and  down  the 
river  have  been  well  described  as  visions  of  some  opium 
dream. 

The  architecture  is  noble  and  impressive.     Great  build- 


BENARES.  333 

ings,  some  of  them  the  homes  of  Brahmans,  others  the 
mansions  of  rajahs,  others  still  a  variety  of  many-colored 
temples,  before  which  are  ugly  stone  images  or  symbols  of 
gods,  make  a  lofty  and  broken  line  against  the  blue  of  the 
western  sky.  But  the  picture  of  human  life  which  one  be- 
holds along  the  bank  of  the  river  seems  like  a  sketch  from 
a  madman's  dream.  We  go  back  to  the  shore.  Wreaths 
of  yellow  flowers  have  been  thrown  into  the  stream.  Some 
of  these  are  decaying.  A  sewer  empties  its  filth  into  the 
Ganges  close  to  a  company  of  bathers,  who  seem  un- 
mindful of  it. 

Once  more  upon  the  banks,  we  inspect  this  strange  life 
more  closely  still.  Pilgrims  have  come  from  all  over  India 
to  this  holiest  shrine  of  Hinduism.  Two  hundred  thousand 
find  their  way  here  every  year.  Benares  is  altogether  holy. 
He  who  dies  within  its  walls  is  in  no  peril  from  sin  or  cere- 
monial pollution.  It  has  been  said  that  a  Christian  or  a 
Moslem,  or  even  a  man  who  has  killed  a  cow  and  eaten  of 
its  flesh,  is  surely  carried  to  the  Himalayan  paradise  of  Siva 
if  fortunate  enough  to  die  in  Benares. 

The  old  and  the  incurable  are  brought  here,  that  after 
their  death  their  ashes  may  be  flung  into  the  river.  The 
great  god  of  the  holy  city  is  Siva,  the  destroyer  and  repro- 
ducer. He  is  everywhere  worshipped  under  the  symbol 
of  the  lingam.  These  symbols  of  various  sizes  are  in  the 
three  thousand  temples  of  the  city,  in  the  homes,  along  the 
streets,  and  huddled  together  sometimes  on  a  platform 
around  a  holy  tree.  One  devotee  has  been  known  to  sit 
upon  the  bank  of  the  Ganges  day  after  day,  making  small 
mud  models  of  Siva's  symbol  and  casting  them  into  the 
river.  A  grain  of  rice  is  stuck  into  each  to  represent  the 
divine  principle.  He  usually  moulds  and  throws  from  him 
two  thousand  of  these  models  in  a  day. 

And  here  we  saw  the  fakirs  in  all  their  dirty  glory,  their 
faces  smeared  with  the  ashes  of  burnt  cow-mud,  their  heads 
a  tangled  mass  of  hair,  looking  like  tarred  oakum.  Near 
the  Golden  Temple,  the  central  shrine  of  Siva  worship,  we 


334  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

became  acquainted  with  a  fakir  who  lives  on  a  wagon,  from 
which  he  never  descends.  On  his  head  I  saw  a  monstrous 
black  turban,  as  I  supposed,  which  in  reality  was  the  piled- 
up  folds  and  strings  of  an  abnormal  growth  of  hair.  At 
Mr.  Parker's  request  he  rose  and  unloosed  the  mighty  mass. 
It  reached  down  more  than  seven  feet,  and  was  divided  into 
black  strings  or  ropes  of  hair,  ornamented  at  intervals  with 
rings,  and  so  dirty  that  it  stuck  together.  The  man  had 
a  really  pleasant  face,  and  one  longed  to  have  charge  of 
him  ;  a  barber's  shop,  a  Turkish  bath,  a  tailor's  establishment, 
and  a  Christian  dinner-table  might  in  a  week  transform  him 
into  a  respectable  if  not  useful  member  of  society. 

In  our  first  visit  to  the  Ganges  we  came  close  to  the  burn- 
ing-ghats, where  one  body  was  already  nearly  consumed. 
The  attendant  was  stirring  up  the  embers,  and  with  a  long 
pole  breaking  all  the  human  fragments  that  remained.  Two 
bodies  of  women  were  brought  down  to  the  water's  edge 
while  we  waited.  Since  they  were  women,  they  were 
clothed  in  red.  While  the  wood  was  being  piled  up,  the 
bodies  were  immersed  in  the  Ganges  to  gain  a  final  blessing 
from  its  waters.  The  cremation  is  intrusted  to  one  partic- 
ular caste,  and  none  of  the  relatives  are  present  at  the  burn- 
ing excepting  the  eldest  son,  if  the  body  is  that  of  his  father 
or  mother.  It  is  his  duty  to  set  fire  to  the  pile.  Mr. 
Parker  informs  me  that  the  grief  which  death  often  occa- 
sions in  a  Hindu  family  is  an  inexpressible  agony.  The 
separation  to  them  is  hopeless  and  eternal. 

The  beggars  that  beset  you  along  the  Ganges  are  the 
most  pitiful  human  objects  that  my  eyes  ever  have  seen. 
Such  withered,  diseased,  maimed,  crippled,  deformed 
specimens  of  abject  humanity  cannot  be  described.  Al- 
most equally  with  them  one  pities  the  crowd  of  pilgrims 
who  descend  to  the  Well  of  the  Ear-ring  and  get  permission 
to  cast  their  flowers  therein.  Among  the  temples  along  the 
shore  is  that  of  the  goddess  of  small-pox.  Mr.  Caine  told 
me  that  in  one  Indian  city  where  vaccination  was  intro- 
duced, the  people  thought  it  was  deadly,  and  so  they  tried 


BENARES.  335 

it  first  on  their  girls.  But  when  the  small-pox  came  the 
boys  died  and  the  girls  lived.  After  this  experience  they 
decided  to  vaccinate  their  girls  no  more.  But  the  boys  are 
vaccinated.  No  words  can  describe  the  religious  scenes  in 
the  older  and  narrower  streets  of  Benares,  where  idolatry 
appears  to  be  the  main  business  of  life.  There  are  more 
idols  than  people.  Women  coming  back  from  the  Ganges, 
holding  their  brass  bowls  filled  with  water,  carefully  avoid 
brushing  against  you  lest  they  be  polluted.  The  shops  are 
filled  with  gods.  Offerings  of  flowers  as  well  as  of  rice  and  of 
sacred  water  are  paid  to  ten  thousand  images.  Cows,  "  con- 
scious of  their  divinity,"  walk  unmolested  amid  all  these 
scenes.  The  filth  in  some  places  is  indescribable.  In 
the  Cow  Temple,  sacred  to  the  goddess  of  plenty,  I  saw  the 
worshippers  kissing  the  cows'  tails ;  and  here  we  saw  the 
popular  worship  of  Ganesh,  or  Ganesa,  the  god  of  wisdom, 
with  an  elephant's  trunk  and  a  great  stomach.  Ganesh  is 
the  son  of  Siva  and  Kali.  A  brass  figure  of  him  appears 
over  the  outer  door  of  the  Golden  Temple,  into  which  we 
gazed  but  could  not  enter. 

But  we  did  find  our  way  into  the  Monkey  Temple,  which 
is  sacred  to  Kali.  Our  clerical  guide  preceded  us,  and  an- 
nounced to  the  guardians  of  the  shrine,  "  This  Sahib  gives 
bakshish  ! "  The  monkeys  have  free  access  to  this  holy 
place,  and  the  screaming  and  chattering  animals,  which  are 
frequently  fed,  make  it  very  attractive.  With  popcorn  in 
your  palm  you  could  shake  hands  with  these  lively  brethren. 
The  Sahib  who  gives  bakshish  was  also  permitted  to  see  the 
great  knife  with  which  the  heads  of  goats  are  cut  off  when 
bloody  offerings  are  made  to  the  terrible  goddess.  Kali  is 
usually  represented  with  four  hands,  a  necklace  of  skulls, 
and  is  standing  on  the  body  of  her  husband,  the  divine  Siva. 
In  her  ecstasy  at  destroying  a  giant  she  tramples  by  mistake 
on  her  husband,  and  she  is  pictured  with  her  tongue  out, 
"  to  express  surprise  and  sorrow."  Some  emancipated  wo- 
man has  asserted  that  Kali  was  deified  because  she  was  the 
first  wife  who  ever  jumped  on  her  husband,  but  I   hope 


336  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Americans  will  not  believe  this  slander  against  the  Hindu 
people. 

This  mild  race,  whom  I  find  it  very  easy  to  love,  have  a 
liking  for  the  terrible.  A  showman  whom  we  encountered 
on  the  great  stairways  leading  to  the  river,  opened  for  our 
pleasure  a  bag  filled  with  scorpions.  The  snakes  which  he 
exhibited  were  not  unfamiliar;  but  when  he  brought  out  a 
fine  cobra  and  made  him  waltz  to  the  music  of  his  pipe,  I 
felt  that  I  had  seen  something  original  and  even  aboriginal. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  scenes  is  a  little  congregation 
of  old  women,  seated  near  a  pundit,  who  reads  to  them  by 
the  hour  from  the  sacred  poems  of  India.  I  had  for  my 
guide  one  day  the  Reverend  J.  J.  Johnson  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society,  himself  a  Sanscrit  scholar  and  a  student 
of  Hindu  philosophy.  From  him  I  could  learn  what  the 
pundits  were  reading.  In  one  case  it  was  the  story  of  the 
coming  incarnation  of  Krishna,  and  of  the  efforts  made  by 
his  enemies  to  prevent  it  by  killing  the  infant  children.  I 
called  with  Mr.  Johnson  at  the  College  of  the  Maharajah  of 
Cashmere.  This  is  an  institution  for  Indian  scholars,  where 
the  instruction  is  far  from  modern  and  scientific.  The 
pundits  were  all  away  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  but  I  saw  the 
class-rooms  and  the  building.  Everything  was  a  strange 
contrast  with  what  we  see  at  home.  The  rooms  have  no 
furniture,  no  table,  no  chairs,  no  pictures,  no  desks,  no 
book-cases,  no  blackboards,  no  maps.  The  rooms  were 
not  rooms,  but  alcoves,  about  a  central  square.  As  we 
ascended  story  after  story,  our  youthful  guide,  a  boy  of 
fifteen,  grandson  of  the  principal,  would  call  out,  "  Vedanta," 
"Astronomy,"  "  Ramayana,"  "General  Literature,"  "  Pu- 
ranas,"  indicating  thus  the  places  where  these  themes  were 
treated.  This  Brahman  boy  had  the  most  remarkable  voice 
to  which  I  ever  listened.  It  was  very  loud,  sharp,  and 
commanding.  It  had  the  tones  of  a  law-giver  proclaiming 
the  edicts  of  heaven.  The  explanation,  according  to  my 
clerical  friend,  was  that  he  spent  his  time  in  reading  aloud 
from  the  Hindu  Shastras. 


BENARES.  337 

I  must  give  an  account  of  three  remarkable  men  whom  I 
have  visited,  types  of  saintly  and  philosophic  Hinduism. 
Benares  is  the  headquarters  of  Hindu  orthodoxy  and  of  the 
highest  Sanscrit  learning.  First  we  called  upon  Vishudd- 
thanand  Swami,  who  has  the  reputation  of  being  not  only  a 
great  pundit,  but  also  the  second  saint  in  Benares,  inferior 
only  to  the  famous  ascetic  Saraswati.  In  one  of  the  high 
buildings  overlooking  the  Ganges  dwells  this  Swami  with 
the  unpronounceable  name.  We  climbed  two  or  three 
flights  of  stone  steps  before  we  reached  the  open  space 
where  he  sat  naked  in  the  sun.  His  light-brown,  heavy 
body  is  surmounted  by  a  head  that  is  intellectual,  and  his 
face  is  intensely  serious.  He  spoke  with  interest  of  the 
Parliament  of  Religions,  and  said  that  the  idea  was  a  good 
one,  although  he  expressed  profound  contempt  of  the 
Hinduism  there  represented,  since  it  was  not  of  his  own 
kind.  "  How  can  one  teach,"  he  said,  "  who  never  has 
learned?"  About  this  Swami  were  gathered  a  number  of 
devotees,  listening  reverently  to  every  word.  He  was  glad 
to  learn  that  a  new  congress  may  be  held  in  Paris.  On 
leaving  him,  before  descending  to  the  street,  we  entered 
a  small  room  where  six  of  his  pupils,  some  of  them  quite 
old,  were  reading  aloud  from  the  sacred  literature  which 
constitutes  almost  their  entire  stock  of  knowledge.  I  in- 
quired of  them,  through  my  interpreter,  if  they  knew  any- 
thing of  the  Christian  Scriptures,  and  received  a  negative 
reply,  together  with  this  profound  aphorism :  "  A  wise 
man,  before  learning  anything  new,  inquires, '  What  purpose 
will  it  serve?'"  We  expressed  the  opinion  that  they 
ought,  for  the  sake  of  their  own  intellectual  expansion,  to 
learn  the  contents  of  the  Christian  Scriptures.  But  it 
seemed  to  them  foolish,  both  because  they  had  not  yet  read 
all  of  their  own  sacred  writings,  and  because  the  wisdom 
which  these  contain  is  inexhaustible  !  One  cannot  but 
smile  at  such  provincialism,  narrowness,  and  conceit. 
Here  were  men  deeming  themselves  wise  and  teachers 
of  the    wise    cooped    in    a   little    room    high    above    the 

22 


338  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

sacred  Ganges,  in  a  venerable  and  holy  city,  surrounded  by 
temples  and  innumerable  images,  and  by  a  population  that 
reveres  them  as  the  sons  of  heaven.  Yet  with  all  their 
knowledge  they  did  not  realize  that  their  minds  were 
dwelling  in  a  hideous  past,  and  that  their  lives  were  girt  by 
a  grotesque,  wretched,  and  pitiable  present,  for  which  they 
and  theirs  were  largely  responsible.  It  is  ignorance  that 
keeps  popular  Hinduism  going;  it  is  learned  ignorance 
that  perpetuates  the  conceit  of  orthodox  Hinduism.  Be- 
nares is  the  great  fortress  of  the  ancient  faith,  which 
Christianity  is  but  slowly  undermining. 

Our  next  call  was  upon  Pundit  Ram  Misra  Sastri,  a  pro- 
fessor of  Philosophy  in  Queen's  College,  Benares.  This 
college  building  is  beautiful,  and  in  the  spacious  gardens 
about  it  is  a  fine  collection  of  sculptured  stones,  many  of 
them  Buddhistic,  brought  from  Sarnath  and  elsewhere. 
The  pundit  received  us  with  real  cordiality,  and  soon  we 
were  seated  in  the  library.  He  was  barefooted,  and 
rubbed  his  feet  together  under  his  chair  as  he  talked  on 
high  themes  in  fairly  good  English.  I  put  to  him  the  ques- 
tion :  "  What  are  the  fundamental  principles  of  Hinduism?  " 

"  Real  Hinduism  holds  to  the  reality  of  the  world,  the 
reality  of  the  soul,  the  reality  and  unity  of  the  great  God, 
and  believes  that  only  through  divine  mercy  can  men  come 
into  unison  with  God,"  he  replied. 

I  said  to  him,  "That  is  Christian." 

"  Why  call  it  Christian?  "  he  said.     "  It  is  Vedic." 

Although  the  pundit  represents  a  philosophic  sect  which 
is  small  and  comparatively  modern,  he  strenuously  holds 
that  his  Vedism  is  the  only  true  Vedism.  I  never  have 
heard  more  scornful  contempt  expressed  for  other  men's 
orthodoxy.  He  is  much  interested  in  the  possible  Paris 
Parliament  of  1900,  but  says  that  unless  a  railroad  is  built 
from  India  to  France  in  order  to  avoid  crossing  the  for- 
bidden water,  no  real  Hindu  can  attend  it ;  and  yet  he  is 
a  highly  respected  and  learned  professor  in  an  English 
government  college. 


BENARES.  339 

But  I  think  most  of  my  readers  will  be  as  much  interested 
in  the  external  as  in  the  internal  life  of  Benares.  Who  can 
picture  it?  Who  can  tell  of  this  endless  succession  of 
scenes,  weird,  beautiful,  disgusting?  Who  can  describe  the 
vast  human  crowd ;  the  wrinkled  or  youthful  faces ;  the 
strange  occupations ;  the  men  by  the  hundred  sitting  down 
in  the  street  or  on  the  shore  of  the  Ganges  and  submitting 
their  heads  to  the  barbers'  razors ;  the  blue  peacocks,  the 
goats,  and  other  animals,  wandering  about  unmolested ;  the 
queer  ekkas,  or  bullock  carts,  though  sometimes  drawn  by 
horses ;  the  shops  filled  with  Benares  brass-work ;  the 
naked  children  walking  comfortably  along  in  the  bright 
sunshine  ? 

Our  last  morning  in  Benares  was  a  delightfully  busy  one 
in  company  with  our  host.  We  went  to  inspect  a  great 
charity,  and  saw  the  beggars  eat  rice  and  pulse  daily  fur- 
nished by  benevolent  Hindus.  We  called  on  Dr.  Lazarus, 
who  has  been  nearly  fifty  years  in  India.  He  has  a  large 
printing-establishment,  and  is  at  present  engaged  in  publish- 
ing an  English  translation  of  the  Vedas  in  full,  —  something 
which  has  never  yet  been  done.  We  paid  our  respects  to 
the  Well  of  Knowledge,  which  owes  its  supernatural  powers 
to  the  fact  that  a  stone  deity,  whose  fine  temple  near  by 
was  being  destroyed  by  the  Mogul  Aurangzeb,  kindly  jumped 
into  its  waters.  It  is  not  a  very  clean  or  attractive 
place.  We  made  another  visit  to  the  Golden  Temple, 
bought  a  few  idols,  saw  the  Cow  Temple,  a  filthy  place 
where  the  divine  quadrupeds  in  large  numbers  were  placidly 
walking  about,  and  touched  the  pinnacle  of  our  morning's 
interest  by  a  visit  to  the  Monkey  Temple. 

I  have  referred  to  two  interesting  Hindu  personages  on 
whom  I  called.  After  leaving  the  Monkey  Temple  we  went 
to  see  a  third,  the  most  interesting  of  all.  This  is  Swami 
Bhaskara  Nand  Saraswati,  the  ascetic,  familiarly  known  as 
"  The  Holy  Man  of  Benares."  He  lives  in  a  beautiful 
home  and  garden  given  him  by  a  rajah.  Plis  attendant 
wrapped  a  cloth  around  his  naked  body  as  we  appeared. 


340  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Had  La  Signora  not  been  with  us,  this  clean,  nice-looking 
old  man  of  sixty-five  years  would  have  received  us  as  Mil- 
ton's Adam  received  the  affable  angel.  He  remembered 
my  correspondence  with  him.  The  Swami  told  me  that  he 
thought  Jesus  was  a  very  good  man.  His  own  ideal  of 
goodness  was  the  character  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Hewlett, 
now  dead,  and  once  at  the  head  of  the  London  Mission  in 
Benares.  The  dear  old  man's  vanity  beams  all  the  while 
from  his  benevolent  face.  He  had  us  write  our  names  in 
his  great  autograph  book,  where  Mark  Twain  had  inscribed 
his  name,  with  this  touching  sentiment :  "  There  appear  to 
be  a  good  many  of  my  fellow-countrymen  abroad  this 
year."  The  Swami  gave  us  a  pamphlet  about  himself,  and 
showed  us  his  life-sized  marble  image  in  a  shrine  which 
stands  in  his  garden.  The  image  was  freshly  garlanded, 
and  the  Swami  enjoys  seeing  his  followers  come  to  worship 
it.  One  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Benares  I  did  not  see, 
Mrs.  Annie  Besant.  She  was  off  on  a  lecturing  tour  among 
this  people,  whose  religion  she  has  wholly  adopted. 

But  Benares  should  be  seen.  It  never  can  be  described. 
At  most  only  a  sketch  of  some  of  its  peculiar  features  is 
possible.  Here  Hinduism  shows  its  endurance  and  elas- 
ticity. One  afternoon  we  drove  a  few  miles  out  to  Sarnath, 
where  we  saw  the  remains  of  two  great  ruined  towers.  One 
of  them,  Dhamek,  is  still  a  noble  structure,  one  hundred 
and  twenty-eight  feet  high.  Buddha,  after  his  enlighten- 
ment at  Gaya,  went  to  Benares  to  preach  Nirvana  and  the 
Law.  And  this  sacred  monument  is  a  memorial  of  his  mis- 
sion to  old  Benares  twenty-four  centuries  ago.  Some  of 
its  stones  have  been  gilded  by  pilgrims  from  far-off  China. 
Near  by  this  tope,  or  tower,  is  a  Jain  temple,  the  shrine  of 
a  kindred  faith.  Buddhism  came  to  rule  India  for  hun- 
dreds of  years,  but  Hinduism  finally  drove  it  out.  Islam 
smote  the  shrines  of  the  sacred  city  with  remorseless  intol- 
erance. But  Hinduism  survives.  Will  Christianity,  the 
religion  of  reason,  of  love,  of  brotherhood,  of  purity,  of 
unselfishness,    ever   displace    the    popular    Hinduism?     It 


BENARES.  341 

seems  to  me  that  no  one  who  believes  in  the  order  and 
rationality  of  the  universe  can  visit  Benares  without  feeling 
that  popular  Hinduism  cannot  always  continue.  No  speedy 
disintegration  is  probable,  but  in  the  long  ages  which  are 
before  us  reason  and  righteousness  will  prevail.  Some  hor- 
rible things  of  the  past  have  been  removed  already. 
Along  the  river  bank  we  saw  decorated  upright  stones,  mark- 
ing the  places  where  women  were  burned  with  the  bodies 
of  their  husbands  in  those  "  good  old  times  "  before  Lord 
William   Bentinck  abolished  this    cruel  abomination. 

We  left  Benares  regretfully.  Our  kind  host  accompanied 
us  to  the  station,  and  there  Mr.  Shiva  S.  Sing,  a  young  barris- 
ter of  the  High  Court,  also  came  to  see  us  off.  A  ride  of 
about  eighteen  hours  brought  us  to  Calcutta,  to  Howrah, 
the  station  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Hoogly,  where  our 
hearts  were  rejoiced  as  well  as  surprised  to  find  a  half- 
score  of  friends  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Mr.  P. 
C.  Mozoomdar's  was  the  only  familiar  face  among  them, 
and  how  delighted  we  were  to  see  him  !  The  Reverend 
Dr.  Macdonald,  Secretary  of  the  Missionary  Conference  of 
Calcutta,  one  of  the  most  influential  Christians  in  India, 
also  greeted  us. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

CALCUTTA. 

*\X  THILE  the  early  English  colonists  in  America  were 
*  planning  the  settlements,  clearing  the   forests,  up- 

turning the  soil,  and  fighting  the  aborigines,  the  English 
traders,  the  representatives  of  the  East  India  Company  and 
later  of  the  United  Company  of  the  Merchants  of  England 
Trading  with  the  East  Indies,  were  establishing  their  fac- 
tories and  building  their  forts  in  Madras,  Bombay,  and  in 
Hoogly  in  Lower  Bengal.  The  Portuguese  had  enjoyed 
during  the  sixteenth  century  a  monopoly  of  the  East  Indian 
trade,  but  they  possessed,  as  Sir  William  Hunter  has  said, 
"  neither  the  political  strength  nor  the  personal  character 
necessary  to  found  an  empire  in  India."  The  Dutch  broke 
through  their  monopoly ;  they  laid  the  foundations  of  per- 
manent supremacy  in  Java,  and  struggled  with  the  English 
for  the  trade  of  India.  But  their  policy,  which  was  founded 
"  upon  a  strict  monopoly  of  the  trade  in  spices,"  led  to  the 
organization  of  the  great  English  trading  company  which 
was  the  beginning  of  England's  permanent,  beneficent,  and 
mighty  empire  in  the  East. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  had  been  only  twenty  years  in  Ply- 
mouth when  an  English  factory  was  established  at  Hoogly. 
The  Mogul  emperors  granted  concessions  and  exclusive 
privileges  here  and  there,  but  the  English  trading  settle- 
ments were  in  constant  danger  from  the  capricious  enmity 
of  the  native  governors ;  and  when  orders  were  issued  in 
1686  by  the  Nawab  of  Bengal  confiscating  all  the  English 
factories  in  that  province,  the  merchants  retreated  more 
than  twenty  miles  down  the  river  Hoogly  to  a  swampy 
little  village  now  a  part  of  Calcutta. 


CALCUTTA.  343 

The  story  of  the  enlargement  of  this  settlement  and  of 
the  English  dominion  until  it  embraced  a  population  of 
three  hundred  millions  is  one  of  the  most  complicated,  pic- 
turesque, and  tragic  in  human  annals.  The  struggles  with 
Indian  princes  and  with  French  armies,  the  cruelties  and 
extortions  practised,  the  crafty  playing  off  of  rival  native 
rulers  against  each  other,  the  gradually  improving  character 
of  British  rule,  the  vast  changes  wrought  by  contact  with 
Western  civilization,  —  all  this  is  one  of  the  most  richly  in- 
structive pages  of  history.  The  city  which  England  created 
on  the  Hoogly  is  now  the  seat  of  government  for  the  whole 
Indian  Empire.  It  may  not  have  the  charms  for  the  sight- 
seer belonging  to  Bombay,  Benares,  and  Delhi,  but  I  have 
found  it  the  centre  of  influences  and  activities  most  varied, 
interesting,  and  vital.  We  have  been  made  welcome  in  the 
homes  of  Principal  and  Mrs.  Morrison  of  the  General  As- 
sembly's Institution,  and  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  K.  S.  Macdonald 
of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  and  have  found  them  de- 
lightful representatives  of  that  intellectual  and  Christian 
life  which  is  the  true  hope  of  India.  We  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  Scotch  Presbyterians  like  these  hospitable 
friends  cannot  be  surpassed  by  the  choicest  exponents  of 
any  other  nation  or  creed. 

Calcutta  has  a  population  of  nearly  nine  hundred  thou- 
sand, of  whom  thirty  thousand  are  Christians.  It  is  called 
the  City  of  Palaces,  but  I  prefer  to  call  it  the  City  of  Col- 
leges. Within  a  half-mile  of  the  building  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  are  institutions  containing 
forty-three  hundred  college  students ;  within  a  mile  of 
this  important  centre  are  institutions  with  about  seven  thou- 
sand college  students.  It  is  said  that  about  ten  thousand 
from  Bengal  take  their  entrance  examinations  here  every 
year.  The  Lady  Dufferin  Hospital  has  been  purchased  by 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  is  being 
changed  and  enlarged  so  as  to  accommodate  their  work. 
Mr.  J.  Campbell  White,  the  vigorous  American  superintend- 
ent of  the  Association,  has  just   received  a  valuable   addi- 


344 


A    WORLD-PIL  GRIM  A  GE. 


tion  to  his  working  force  by  the  coming  of  his  brother, 
Professor  VV.  W.  White,  from  the  Moody  Institute,  Chi- 
cago. These  men  justly  deem  this  the  grandest  opening 
for  Christian  effort  among  non-Christian  college  men  to  be 
found  in  Asia,  or  perhaps  in  the  world.  A  drive  through 
the  city  shows  you  colleges,  often  with  Greek  columned 
porticos  that  have  a  strange  look  in  India,  —  colleges  every- 
where. At  the  reception  given  to  me  shortly  after  my 
arrival,  at  the  palace  of  the  Maharajah,  it  seemed  that 
almost  every  other  man  was  a  teacher,  professor,  or  pre- 
sident in  some  institution.  But  I  should  not  confine 
this  statement  to  men.  Learned  women  are  not  unknown 
or  unappreciated ;  and  among  those  present  at  the  re- 
ception was  Miss  Bose,  head  of  the  Bethune  Government 
College  for  Women,  a  Christian  lady  of  ability  and  culture, 
and  a  niece  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bose,  whose  work  on 
Hindu  philosophy  is  well  known  in  America. 

But  my  readers  must  not  think  that  Calcutta  is  all  col- 
leges. It  has  some  fine  government  buildings  and  many 
spacious  and  splendid  residences.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  a 
conversation  with  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Bengal,  a  man  of  great  force  and  wide  experi- 
ence in  Indian  affairs.  He  is  also  a  warm  and  intelligent 
friend  of  Christian  missions.  He  told  me  that  he  always 
had  believed  that  India  was  yet  to  have  a  national  church, 
which  would  not  be  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  or  the 
Church  of  England  or  any  other  Western  organization.  In 
a  recent  address  he  said  that  he  looked  forward  to  the  ris- 
ing of  some  great  Indian  apostle,  who  would  kindle  the  fuel 
that  had  been  laid  by  these  Christian  colleges  into  one  glow- 
ing mass  of  enthusiasm.  I  found  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
not  at  all  in  sympathy  with  the  Indian  National  Congress, 
which  has  just  closed  its  sessions  in  Calcutta.  He  regards 
it  as  a  movement  led  by  ambitious  Hindus,  who  do  not 
represent  the  people,  and  who  are  stirring  up  opposition  to 
British  influence  and  authority.  The  official  classes  gen- 
erally are  hostile  to  the  Congress. 


CALCUTTA.  345 

We  dined  the  other  evening  with  the  Honorable  Justice 
Ameer  Ali,  well  known  throughout  the  world  for  his  literary 
championship  of  Islam.  He  is  a  delightful  man,  and  his 
English  wife  is  one  of  the  most  charming  of  hostesses.  It 
was  a  great  disappointment  to  him  that  the  British  govern- 
ment would  not  give  him  a  release  from  official  duties,  so 
that  he  could  visit  Chicago  in  1893  and  represent  his  faith 
at  our  Congress.  He  is  engaged  now  upon  a  history  of  the 
Saracens,  and  he  showed  me  the  great  French  and  Arabic 
books  which  furnish  the  original  authorities  for  this  work. 
Ameer  Ali  is  of  Persian  extraction,  and  Persian  is  one  of 
the  languages  with  which  he  is  conversant.  He  is  looked 
upon,  both  within  and  without  the  Indian  Empire,  as  the 
chief  defender  of  Islam.  Dr.  Washburn  of  Constantinople 
told  me  that  he  had  read  four  or  five  times  Ameer  Ali's 
large  volume  on  Mohammedanism.  To  him  it  was  one 
of  the  most  fascinating  of  books,  but  also  misleading,  as  it 
enveloped  Islam  with  roseate  and  romantic  hues. 

At  the  Ameer  Ali  dinner-table  we  met  some  important 
Anglo-Indians,  and  among  them  the  Home  Secretary  of  the 
Lieutenant-Governor.  He  used  to  be  the  English  judge  at 
Gaya,  where  Buddha  had  his  enlightenment,  and  he  gave  me 
the  history  of  Mr.  Dharmapala's  efforts  to  re-establish  the 
temple  of  Buddha-Gaya  as  a  Buddhist  shrine.  Justice 
Ameer  Ali  also  is  not  a  friend  of  the  Indian  National  Con- 
gress, which,  in  his  opinion,  is  designed  to  advance  the 
interests  of  Hindus  rather  than  of  Moslems.  There  are 
fifty-seven  million  Mohammedans  in  India,  and  the  leaders 
among  them  generally  keep  aloof  from  the  Congress.  How- 
ever, the  President  of  the  Congress  is  this  year  a  Moham- 
medan from  Bombay,  and  I  listened  to  a  part  of  his  open- 
ing address. 

In  Beadon  Square  rises  the  huge  Pandal,  or  tabernacle, 
thatched  with  grass,  with  an  opening  around  its  whole 
circle,  and  adorned  within  and  without  with  flags,  in  which 
the  Indian  National  Congress  has  held  its  sessions.  About 
one  hundred  slim  pillars,  fashioned  to  look  like  tall,  delicate 


346  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

palm-trees,  support  the  wide  roof,  which  is  ceiled  with  white 
cloth  and  profusely  and  brilliantly  decorated.  We  attended 
the  opening  session,  at  which  perhaps  five  thousand  people 
were  present.  It  certainly  was  a  marvellously  interesting 
gathering ;  the  educated  men  from  all  parts  of  India,  of  all 
races  and  of  all  religions ;  the  costumes  so  varied  and  often 
so  beautiful ;  the  singing  by  a  large  choir,  made  up  mostly  of 
Brahmos,  of  a  national  hymn  to  national  music,  —  these  were 
features  of  great  interest.  The  Brahmo  and  Christian 
Indian  ladies  who  sat  near  us,  clothed  in  light  silk  dresses 
with  veils  of  tissue,  often  embroidered  with  threads  of  gold, 
made  a  lovely  picture.  The  President  of  the  Congress  de- 
livered a  very  long  and  able  opening  address,  describing 
the  purpose  of  the  Congress  and  giving  reasons  why  Mus- 
sulmans should   co-operate. 

The  Indian  peoples  certainly  have  grievances,  not  the 
least  of  which  is  the  incredible  and  unpardonable  delay  of  the 
British  government  in  India  to  provide  famine  relief.  Fur- 
thermore, the  Indian  peoples  have  aspirations  after  national 
unity  and  larger  privileges  of  self-government,  with  which 
one  does  in  a  measure  sympathize.  The  example  of  the 
United  States,  as  a  Hindu  professor  of  history  in  a  govern- 
ment college  said  to  us  yesterday,  showing  how  national 
unity  may  be  combined  with  state  rights  and  local  self- 
government,  is  teaching  India,  and  filling  her  educated 
minds  with  patriotic  and  laudable  hopes. 

Parts  of  Calcutta  are  exceedingly  modern  and  European  ; 
but  these  are  often  close  to  streets  and  scenes  of  Indian 
and  aboriginal  simplicity.  The  white-robed,  bare-limbed 
crowds  moving  quickly  up  and  down  the  streets  in  front  of 
the  shops  ;  the  water  and  milk  carriers,  with  great  jars  sus- 
pended from  an  elastic  bow  over  the  shoulders  ;  the  men 
dressing  their  hair,  cleaning  their  ears,  cutting  their  toenails, 
scouring  their  teeth,  rubbing  their  bodies  with  oil,  or  sub- 
mitting their  faces  to  the  razor  right  in  the  street  and  before 
the  eyes  of  everybody ;  the  carding  of  cotton  with  a  rough 
spring  bow ;  the  bathing  of  men,  women,  and  children  not 


CALCUTTA.  347 

only  in  the  Ganges,  but  also  in  the  hundred  large  tanks 
provided  by  the  government  in  different  parts  of  the  city ; 
the  washing  and  drying  of  the  strips  of  cotton  cloth  which 
serve  for  garments,  the  naked  bodies  and  uncovered  heads 
of  perhaps  one-half  of  the  native  male  population  ;  the  en- 
tirely naked  children ;  the  bullock  carts,  where  the  driver 
sits  on  a  projection  of  the  cart  between  the  heads  of  the 
little  animals,  which  he  mildly  flagellates,  —  all  this  is  far 
from  European  and  Occidental,  and  quite  in  contrast  with 
the  government  houses,  the  post-office,  the  telegraph  office, 
the  monuments,  the  university  buildings,  and  the  beautiful 
cathedral,  costing  fifty  thousand  pounds,  paid  for  in  part 
by  taxes  from  a  miserable  and  half-starved  peasantry.  The 
fine  post-office,  surmounted  by  a  lofty  dome,  stands  on  the 
site  of  the  famous  Black  Hole,  which  has  given  to  Calcutta 
a  place  in  the  minds  of  millions  who  know  nothing  else  of 
this  Indian  capital. 

Calcutta  gets  its  name  from  Kali  Ghat,  the  site  of  a  Kali 
temple  which  we  visited  the  other  morning  in  company  with 
Principal  Morrison.  When  the  goddess  was  cut  to  pieces, 
one  of  her  fingers  fell  on  this  spot,  and  the  temple  built  at 
this  sacred  place  brings  great  wealth  to  the  priestly  family 
who  manage  it.  The  shrine  is  not  a  cleanly  one  and  very 
far  from  attractive.  We  did  not  see  the  famous  image  of 
Kali,  as  the  doors  were  not  yet  open  ;  but  in  another  temple 
we  saw  one  almost  equally  fine,  that  is  equally  horrible.  We 
have  also  visited  the  Zoological  Garden,  and  duly  admired 
the  Bengal  tigers  and  the  superb  collection  of  Indian  rep- 
tiles. I  have  seen  too  the  Jain  temples,  surrounded  by  gar- 
dens, which  a  wealthy  Jain  opens  to  his  fellow  believers. 
The  whole  region  is  a  stately  pleasure-house.  The  tanks  are 
full  of  fish  ;  the  garden  is  full  of  statues,  a  curious  combina- 
tion of  Greek  and  Oriental  sculpture.  Jain  worshippers  paint 
their  foreheads  with  yellow.  They  are  said  to  be  surely 
becoming  Hinduized,  and  are  likely  to  be  absorbed  by 
the  most  omnivorous  of  religions.  The  Jains  here  are  a 
wealthy  and  benevolent  part  of  the  population,   and  their 


348  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

annual  procession  is  the  most  brilliant  spectacle  of  the 
year. 

Rarely  in  my  life  have  I  been  so  occupied  as  during  our 
Calcutta  visit.  The  weather  has  been  fine,  not  excessively 
warm,  and  I  have  been  able  to  undergo  an  amount  of  work 
which  the  "  old  Indian  "  deems  rather  unusual.  I  have 
averaged  two  addresses  a  day,  and  probably  have  driven 
fifty  miles  to  make  them.  I  like  the  domestic  arrange- 
ments, which  furnish  an  opportunity  for  the  greatest  amount 
of  work.  Maruti  wakes  me  before  seven  in  the  morning, 
and  brings  in  the  chota  hazri,  or  little  breakfast.  I  thus 
get  two  hours  before  the  nine-o'clock  breakfast.  This  in- 
terval is  usually  filled  with  calls.  The  Indians  call  at  this 
time ;  the  Europeans  between  twelve  and  two.  Tiffin,  or 
luncheon,  is  at  half-past  two  o'clock,  tea  at  half-past  four, 
lectures  at  five  and  at  half-past  six,  dinner  at  half-past  eight. 
The  manners  of  the  Indian  people  are  the  most  courteous 
and  pleasant  possible.  They  could  give  Saxon  peoples 
valuable  lessons  in  conversation  and  demeanor.  I  find 
that  the  Indians  are  not  pleased  with  the  ordinary  ways 
of  the  Englishman,  who  is  often  needlessly  domineering, 
brusque,  and  discourteous.  The  English  are  one  of  the 
greatest  of  nations ;  they  have  wrought  for  the  Indian 
peoples  an  immeasurable  service  ;  but  they  have  not  gained 
their  hearts.  In  saying  this  I  do  not  forget,  however,  that 
many  noble  Christian  missionaries,  men  and  women,  have 
won  the  deepest  affection  of  their  Indian  converts  and 
friends. 

I  could  write  a  dozen  chapters  detailing  interesting  con- 
versations and  giving  my  experiences  in  Calcutta  in  connec- 
tion with  the  founding  of  the  Indian  lectureship.  It  must 
suffice,  however,  for  me  at  this  time  to  record  my  apprecia- 
tion of  the  mind  and  spirit  shown  by  the  non-Christian 
educated  Hindus.  Such  patient  attention,  such  hearty  and 
general  responsiveness,  such  constant  courtesy,  such  intel- 
ligent insight  into  the  best  utterances  I  have  been  able  to 
offer,  such  freedom  from  taking  offence  at  the  most  pro- 


CALCUTTA.  349 

nounced  Christian  sentiments  and  convictions,  I  did  not 
expect  to  find.  The  demonstration  made  at  the  close  of 
the  last  lecture  was  especially  gratifying,  and  Mrs.  Haskell's 
name  and  generous  deeds  were  enthusiastically  and  repeat- 
edly applauded.  On  every  occasion  where  her  name  has 
been  mentioned,  —  in  the  Maharajah's  palace,  at  the  various 
receptions  given  by  the  Brahmos  in  the  homes  of  Mr.  P.  C. 
Mozoomdar  and  the  late  Keshub  Chundar  Sen,  in  the 
hall  of  the  London  Missionary  Institution  and  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly's  Institution,  —  it  has  awakened  immediate 
response. 

The  impression  seems  to  be  at  present  strong  in  Calcutta 
that  the  University  of  Chicago's  lectureship  in  this  city  was 
needed,  and  that  its  continuance  will  be  permanently  use- 
ful. It  is  well  known  that  Christianity  has  not  made  large 
inroads  as  yet  into  the  higher  ranks  of  Hindu  society.  The 
most  gratifying  feature  of  the  India  lectureship  thus  far  has 
been  the  presence  at  our  meetings  of  many  who  have  not 
heretofore  attended  distinctively  Christian  lectures.  These 
are  men  who  are  not  reached  by  the  evangelistic  methods 
which  are  so  useful  among  other  classes.  Still  the  educated 
Bengali  Christians  whom  I  have  come  to  know  are  as  re- 
fined and  pleasant  people  as  one  would  ever  meet.  A  num- 
ber of  them  were  invited  by  Mrs.  Macdonald  to  dine  with 
us  ;  and  added  to  the  pleasant  company  was  the  Hon.  A.  N. 
Bose,  a  foremost  man  among  the  Brahmos,  a  Cambridge 
wrangler  and  a  member  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor's 
Council. 

I  think  most  of  my  readers  will  be  interested  in  a  sketch, 
however  hasty  and  imperfect,  of  the  reception  given  me  on 
December  twenty-third,  in  the  palace  of  the  Maharajah,  the 
leading  nobleman  of  Calcutta,  by  representatives  of  the 
Hindu,  Mohammedan,  Jain,  Parsi,  Buddhist,  Brahmo,  and 
Christian  communities.  The  Maharajah  Bahadur,  Sir  J. 
N.  Tagore,  belongs  to  a  historic  line,  and  is  an  orthodox 
Hindu  in  belief  and  practice,  though  his  family  lost  caste 
several  generations  ago  by  involuntarily  smelling  food  which 


350  A    IVORLD-PILGRJAIAGE. 

had  been  cooked  by  Mohammedans.  The  palace  is  sur- 
rounded by  many  of  the  poorer  buildings  and  residences 
of  the  Hindu  quarter.  Across  the  street  from  it  is  the 
new  palace,  in  process  of  erection,  which  has  some  of  the 
features  of  Windsor  Castle.  As  we  entered  the  Maharajah's 
residence,  we  passed  between  red-coated  Indian  soldiers, 
and  up  the  stairway,  through  an  army  of  servants,  to  the 
spacious  and  splendid  drawing-room,  carpeted  in  red  and 
adorned  with  portraits.  Two  hundred  guests  assembled 
here.  The  Maharajah,  who  has  an  intellectual  face  and 
gentle  manners,  received  us,  assisted  by  his  adopted  son. 

Of  course  no  ladies  of  this  Hindu  household  were  visible, 
but  among  the  guests  were  perhaps  fifty  ladies,  either 
Europeans  or  Americans  or  members  of  the  Brahmo  and 
Christian  communities.  Among  these  were  several  who  had 
taken  their  degrees  at  the  university.  Nearly  all  the  Ben- 
gali ladies  wore  the  Indian  costume,  which  is  beautiful  and 
picturesque.  The  scene  was  varied  and  brilliant,  and  re- 
minded us  of  the  receptions  given  to  the  delegates  to  the 
Parliament  of  Religions  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  A.  C.  Bartlett  and 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  E.  W.  Blatchford  in  1893.  The  costumes 
were  more  picturesque  in  Calcutta,  but  the  faiths  and 
nations  represented  were  more  varied  in  Chicago. 

Among  those  present  were  the  Prince  of  Mysore ;  Mr. 
Justice  and  Mrs.  Ameer  Ali ;  Justice  D.  G.  Banurji,  an 
orthodox  Hindu,  and  one  of  the  most  respected  men  in  the 
city ;  Mr.  R.  D.  Mehta,  a  leading  Parsi ;  the  Honorable 
Surendra  Nath  Banerjea,  a  former  President  of  the  Indian 
Congress ;  Professor  and  Mrs.  Tomory  of  Duff  College  ; 
Mr.  P.  C.  Mozoomdar,  and  perhaps  twenty  other  leading 
representatives  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj ;  Rai  Jotindra  Nath 
Chowdri,  a  landed  proprietor,  who  is  very  active  in  the 
present  Hindu  revival ;  perhaps  forty  representatives  of  the 
Christian  community ;  many  Hindus,  several  Jains  and 
Buddhists,  together  with  heads  of  colleges  in  this  great 
collegiate  centre.  No  words  can  do  justice  to  the  courtesy 
with  which  these  representatives  of  many  faiths  spoke  of 


SIR    J.    M.    TAGORE,    MAHARAJAH    BAHADUR. 


CALCUTTA.  351 

the  kindnesses  shown  to  the  Oriental  delegates  by  American 
friends.  The  heart  of  this  great  Indian  people  has  been 
touched  by  the  regard  and  sympathy  with  which  the  Indian 
delegates  were  received  in  my  own  country.  Many  beau- 
tiful and  loving  words  have  I  heard  spoken  of  America 
since  I  came  to  Calcutta. 

The  reception  lasted  three  hours.  Of  course  the  gracious 
Hindu  nobleman  could  not  provide  food  as  a  part  of  the 
evening's  entertainment.  But  we  had  something  better,  — 
fine  Hindu  music,  skilful  and  wonderful  Hindu  jugglery,  and 
all  the  amenities  of  Hindu  courtesy.  Dr.  K.  S.  Macdonald 
made  the  address  of  welcome,  and  in  my  reply  I  spoke  of 
the  great  privilege  at  last  given  me  of  standing  on  the  soil 
of  India  and  of  bringing  a  loving  salutation  from  the  young 
and  vigorous  West  to  the  thoughtful  East.  I  described  the 
hopes  and  purposes  of  the  lectureship  on  Christianity,  and 
I  took  special  pleasure  in  referring  to  the  great  past  and 
greater  future  of  India,  and  expressed  the  conviction  that 
the  best  ministry  of  religion  lies  in  the  years  to  come,  when 
men  shall  be  bound  together  into  a  cosmopolitan  fraternity. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS.  —  THE    BRAHMO   SOMAJ. 

IT  is  one  of  the  truest  of  old  sayings  about  travel  that  you 
find  what  you  are  looking  for.  In  India  we  find  every- 
where missions,  and  I  can  easily  make  fun  of  those  globe- 
trotters who  see  in  India  tigers  and  temples,  bazaars  and 
nautch-dances,  but  no  evidences  that  Christian  Europe  and 
America  are  doing  anything  for  the  evangelizing  of  this 
great  land.  Missions  and  missionaries  in  Bombay,  missions 
and  missionaries  in  Benares,  missions  and  missionaries  in 
Calcutta  ! 

The  problems  are  so  many,  vast,  and  complicated  that 
one  becomes  convinced  that  there  is  no  man  living  who 
thoroughly  understands  India  and  Indian  missions.  Still, 
there  are  some  things  which  I  am  certain  that  I  should  be 
just  as  sure  of  after  a  residence  here  of  forty  years  as  I  am 
to-day;  namely,  that  India  needs  Christianity  and  that 
Christian  missionaries  are  doing  good  work.  A  number  of 
the  Brahmos  realize  and  acknowledge  that  Christ  is  to  have 
a  great  part  in  the  regeneration  of  India,  while  Hindus  and 
Mohammedans  understand  perfectly  well  that  the  schools 
and  colleges  which  Christianity  has  fostered  have  created 
some  of  the  better  conditions  of  the  new  national  life. 

In  Benares  we  saw  popular  Hinduism,  and  were  far  from 
fascinated  by  its  phenomena.  In  Calcutta  we  met  very 
many  of  the  educated  Bengali  converts  to  Christianity,  and 
we  were  highly  pleased  by  what  we  saw  and  heard  of  these 
fine-hearted  Christian  men  and  women.  The  educated 
Indians  who  are  Christians  do  adorn  the  doctrine  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.    Mr.  K.  C.  Banurji,  who  presided  at  one 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.— THE  BRAHMO  SO  MA  J.        353 

of  my  lectures  and  was  very  active  in  the  recent  Indian 
National  Congress,  is  greatly  loved  for  his  character,  and 
has  a  wide  reputation  as  a  persuasive  and  eloquent  speaker. 
I  have  assured  him  that  he  ought  to  go  to  Great  Britain  and 
America.  He  could  speak  with  a  sweet,  reasonable  author- 
ity in  regard  to  the  needs  of  India.  Another  whom  I 
would  mention  is  Mr.  B.  L.  Chatterjea,  a  subordinate  judge 
of  Bengal,  whose  decisions  were  never  over-ruled  by  a 
higher  court.  When  our  hostess,  Mrs.  Macdonald,  invited 
him  with  others  to  dine  with  us,  he  gave  me  some  "  Papers 
for  Thoughtful  Men "  which  he  had  prepared.  One  of 
them,  which  has  passed  through  four  editions,  is  called  "  A 
Brahman  Convert's  Testimony  for  Christ,"  in  which  he 
tells  us  how  the  doctrine  of  atonement,  instead  of  being  a 
stumbling-block  in  his  way,  became  the  staff  of  his  life.  He 
told  me  that  Channing  converted  him  to  faith  in  the  divine 
origin  of  Christianity,  and  that  Moses  Stuart's  reply  to 
Channing  converted  him  to  faith  in  the  divinity  of  Christ. 
I  have  seen  and  heard  many  things  which  lead  me  to  place 
a  high  estimate  on  the  value  to  India  of  the  best  Christian 
literature,  and  particularly  of  a  Christian  literature  prepared 
especially  for  the  Hindu  mind.  Among  the  educated 
Christian  women  whom  we  met  in  Calcutta  I  have  men- 
tioned Miss  Bose,  the  superintendent  of  the  Bethune  Col- 
lege for  girls,  a  government  institution  with  about  a  hundred 
and  eighty  students,  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  addressing 
last  Monday  morning.  She  is  a  M.  A.,  and  is  greatly  es- 
teemed. It  was  pleasant  to  see  the  Hindu  pundits  and 
teachers  of  philosophy  and  history  who  serve  in  Bethune 
College  under  this  lady's  direction.  Miss  Bose  rightly 
believes  that  India  will  never  be  regenerated  until  women 
are  educated.  When  Macaulay  was  here  and  saw  fourteen 
hundred  Bengali  boys  studying  English  in  the  government 
schools,  he  prophesied  that  in  thirty  years  idolatry  and  its 
accompanying  evils  would  be  swept  away  !  The  fatal  mis- 
take of  the  government  was  not  to  take  in  hand  the  educa- 
tion of  women  from  the  very  beginning.     Society  cannot 

23 


354  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

rise  much  higher  than  the  household,  than  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  mother.  A  radical  Hindu  reformer  from 
Madras  expressed  to  me  the  opinion  that  most  Indian 
young  men  take  on  an  English  education  simply  to  get  an 
appointment  and  thus  make  a  living.  And  he  believes  that 
if  the  government  would  reserve  for  women  exclusively  a 
large  number  of  the  lower  civil  offices  which  were  to  be 
theirs  after  the  usual  examinations,  this  change  would  do 
much  to  solve  the  problem  of  woman's  education.  I  need 
not  say  that  idolatry  has  not  disappeared ;  and  however 
strong  and  enduring  the  hold  of  Hinduism  over  the  popular 
mind,  and  this  hold  is  social  more  than  religious,  the  Brah- 
man priests  are  not  generally  respected  by  well-informed 
persons.  At  the  recent  Indian  Social  Congress  in  Calcutta 
a  resolution  was  passed  asking  the  government  to  superin- 
tend the  administration  of  the  funds  of  the  temples,  where 
the  worship  is  sometimes  attended  with  well-known  immo- 
ralities. When  I  said  to  Professor  Max  M tiller  that  it  had 
been  denied  that  such  immoralities  were  practised,  he 
smiled  and  said,  "  One  has  only  to  consult  the  reports  found 
in  the  Indian  Census  prepared  by  the  British  government." 
Christmas  was  a  strange,  busy  day,  in  a  strange,  far-off 
land,  although  among  very  friendly  people.  Our  Christmas 
letters  from  America  did  not  arrive  until  a  week  later.  But 
there  were  tokens  from  friends  in  Calcutta,  and  a  generous 
gift  of  Indian  fruits  and  sweetmeats  from  Mrs.  Mozoomdar. 
I  attended  Christmas  service  at  the  Dharamtala  Metho- 
dist Church,  and  preached  on  "  The  Living  Christ."  In 
the  evening  I  gave  my  second  lecture,  Dr.  K.  S.  Mac- 
donald  in  the  chair,  on  the  "  World-wide  Effects  of  Chris- 
tianity." The  next  evening  I  gave  a  lecture  on  "  Christian 
Theism  the  Basis  of  a  Universal  Religion,"  Mr.  K.  C. 
Banurji,  the  Christian  Bengali  to  whom  I  have  already 
referred,  being  in  the  chair.  After  the  three  first  lectures 
I  felt  much  more  at  home  with  the  acute  and  sympathetic 
Hindu  mind.  Not  only  did  I  greatly  enjoy  bringing  my 
message   to   their  earnest   attention,  but  I   felt  that  each 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIOXS.— THE  BRA  HMO  SOMA/.       355 

address  belonged  to  the  world  of  action.  It  was  a  serious 
business  stamped  with  reality.  It  appeared  to  me  a  very 
different  thing  from  proclaiming  a  similar  message  before 
Christian  audiences,  already  persuaded  of  the  truth.  On 
Sunday,  December  twenty-seventh,  the  various  Brahmo 
communities  gave  us  a  reception  in  Albert  Hall,  with  ad- 
dresses by  four  of  their  Calcutta  leaders,  among  whom  was 
the  Honorable  A.  M.  Bose.  Another  of  the  speakers  was 
Mr.  M.  N.  Bose,  editor  of  "  Unity  and  the  Minister,"  the 
favorite  disciple  of  the  late  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  a  man 
full  of  enthusiasm  for  Christ  and  full  of  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
From  Albert  Hall  we  went  to  Beadon  Square,  to  the  out-door 
preaching  service  in  which  Dr.  Macdonald  has  been  for  many 
years  actively  interested.  A  chorus  furnished  by  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  led  in  the  musical  service,  and 
I  preached  from  Christ's  invitation  "  Come  unto  Me  "  to  a 
standing  company,  among  whom  I  recognized  a  number  of 
Hindu  college  students.  Beadon  Square  is  now  a  historic 
place,  for  there  was  fought  out  and  won  by  the  mission- 
aries, headed  by  Dr.  Macdonald,  the  battle  for  the  right  of 
open-air  preaching  in  the  squares  of  Calcutta,  without  let 
or  hindrance  and  without  the  need  of  securing  a  special 
license  liable  to  be  revoked  by  caprice  or  malice.  For  two 
years  before  1881  the  open-air  preaching  in  the  squares  of 
Calcutta  had  attracted  larger  audiences  of  non-Christian 
listeners  than  had  ever  before  been  secured  in  the  city. 
The  municipal  commissioners,  the  chairman  of  whom  was  a 
Roman  Catholic  appointed  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
determined  to  stop  any  meetings  for  religious  preaching  in 
four  squares  of  the  city  without  special  permission  from  the 
chairman.  This  man  was  also  the  head  of  the  police  of 
Calcutta,  and  was  appointed  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
who  was  hostile  both  to  missions  and  to  morality.  Orders 
were  given  by  the  police  commanding  Dr.  Macdonald  and 
another  preacher  to  stop,  while  they  were  speaking  to  an 
orderly  company  in  Beadon  Square  on  Sunday  the  first  of 
May.     They  refused  to  obey  what  they  deemed  an  illegal 


356  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

order,  and  at  a  subsequent  meeting  were  arrested.  The 
crusade  against  the  preachers  caused  immense  excitement, 
and  the  missionaries,  obedient  as  good  citizens  to  due 
authority,  having  no  wish  to  infringe  the  rights  of  other 
people,  not  desiring  any  special  privileges  in  connection 
with  open-air  preaching  which  had  been  going  on  for  fifty 
years,  believing  that  the  stopping  of  preaching  could  not 
well  be  effected  without  an  unwarranted  interference  with 
the  liberty  of  the  citizens,  informed  the  head  of  the  local 
government  that  they  had  the  same  right  to  enter  Beadon 
Square  with  other  people,  and  the  same  right  to  speak 
there  with  those  who  were  ready  to  listen.  Without  going 
into  further  details  of  the  history  let  me  say  that  the  case 
was  finally  brought  to  trial  before  a  court  consisting  of 
four  justices,  one  a  Moslem,  one  a  Hindu,  and  two  of  them 
Christians.  The  missionaries  engaged  the  best  native  law- 
yers, and  the  trial  lasted  two  weeks.  The  decision  of  the 
judges  was  unanimous,  and  was  written  and  read  by  the 
Moslem,  Justice  Ameer  AIL  It  was  a  crushing  defeat  for 
the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  his  allies.  Although  at  first 
there  was  a  purpose  to  appeal  to  a  higher  court,  it  was 
abandoned.  There  was  no  desire  to  stir  up  the  Christian 
and  liberty-loving  public  of  England.  And  Beadon  Square 
is  now  a  sanctuary  of  free  speech.  On  Sunday  evening  I 
attended  a  meeting  of  the  Fourth  Indian  Convention  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  spoke  on  the 
"  Truth  and  Comfort  of  Christian  Theism." 

On  Monday,  December  twenty-eighth,  I  gave  my  first  lec- 
ture at  the  southern  end  of  Calcutta  in  the  London  Mission 
Institution  at  Bhawanipore.  On  Tuesday  morning  we 
accepted  the  invitation  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Macdonald  to  spend 
the  rest  of  our  stay  in  Calcutta  with  them,  and  on  both  Tues- 
day and  Wednesday  I  gave  two  other  lectures  in  Bhawanipore. 
On  Wednesday  afternoon  a  reception  was  given  us  at  Peace 
Cottage  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mozoomdar,  which  I  must  briefly 
describe,  as  it  illustrates  Indian  ways  of  welcoming  guests. 
A  conch  shell  sounded  its  note  as  we  entered  the  gate.     As 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.— THE  BRAHMO  SOMA/.       357 

we  drew  near  the  house,  rose-petals  were  showered  upon  us 
from  a  balcony.  Mr.  Mozoomdar  was  dressed  in  the  white 
robes  which  he  wears  when  preaching.  Mrs.  Mozoomdar, 
who  does  not  speak  English,  made  an  address  to  Mrs. 
Barrows  in  Bengali.  We  were  garlanded,  and  then  pre- 
sented to  the  Brahmo  ladies,  a  beautiful  group  of  about 
twenty  young  women.  Our  host  made  an  address,  to  which 
I  responded,  after  which  some  remarks  were  made  by  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Harwood  of  England.  Incense  sticks  were 
burned,  —  another  note  of  welcome.  Seventeen  different 
kinds  of  fruits  and  Indian  sweetmeats  were  spread  before 
us.  Some  of  these  were  delicious.  Then  Sanscrit  and 
Bengali  hymns  were  sung  by  the  "  Singing  Apostle  "  among 
the  Brahmos,  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  violin  played  by  a 
beautiful  young  girl,  who  also  sang.  Among  the  twenty 
Indian  gentlemen  present,  several  were  Brahmo  preachers. 
Before  leaving  we  were  shown  through  our  host's  pleasant 
and  simply  furnished  cottage.  I  was  glad  to  see  a  marble 
cross  standing  on  Mr.  Mozoomdar's  table.  The  hour  we 
spent  in  Peace  Cottage  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  our 
lives. 

On  Thursday  morning  I  addressed  a  Boys'  Reading  Club. 
In  the  evening  I  resumed  my  work  in  the  General  Assem- 
bly's Institution,  giving  my  fourth  lecture,  which  has  for 
its  theme  "  The  Universal  Book."  At  half-past  six  I 
was  driven  to  the  Calcutta  University,  where  I  delivered  an 
address  on  "  The  Parliament  of  Religions,"  —  a  vital  theme 
here  in  India,  involving  questions  of  perpetual  interest. 

Friday,  January  first,  was  a  novel  opening  to  a  new  year. 
In  the  afternoon  we  accepted  the  invitation  of  the  Maharani 
of  Kuch  Behar,  the  daughter  of  the  late  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen,  to  visit  her  mother  and  herself  at  Lily  Cottage.  A 
bell  sounded  as  we  entered  the  yard,  and  "Welcome"  in 
silver  letters  was  over  door  and  stairway.  It  is  thirteen 
years  now  since  the  eloquent  reformer,  the  best-known 
Hindu  of  this  generation,  entered  into  his  rest.  The  first 
day  of  January  is  a  sacred  day  with  the  family,  who  always 


358  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

spend  it  at  Lily  Cottage  together.  Keshub  Chunder  Sen 
died  January  eighth,  1884  ;  but  on  the  first  day  of  that  year 
he  made  his  last  public  prayer,  dedicating  the  sanctuary 
near  to  his  house  and  connected  with  it.  We  found  it  filled 
with  flowers ;  and  the  monument  near  by,  under  which  his 
ashes  are  buried,  was  garlanded.  On  his  tomb  are  inscrip- 
tions in  four  languages,  and  above  it  is  a  marble  symbol 
composed  of  the  cross,  crescent,  and  trident.  Within  the 
house  garlands,  sweets,  fruits,  tea,  singing,  and  playing 
entertained  us.  The  Maharani  is  the  wife  of  the  Maharajah 
of  Kuch  Behar,  and  is  a  beautiful  and  accomplished  princess. 
When  in  England,  she  was  a  guest  of  the  Queen  at  Windsor 
Castle.  The  widow  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  is  a  sweet- 
faced  lady,  rich  in  the  love  of  her  ten  children  and  eighteen 
grandchildren.  She  was  glad  to  hear  that  her  husband's 
words  had  been  widely  read  and  were  much  appreciated  in 
America.  A  lovelier  family  and  a  sweeter  family  life  I  have 
never  seen.  Not  only  the  Maharani,  but  several  of  her 
brothers,  sisters,  nephews,  and  nieces  were  at  Lily  Cottage, 
together  with  some  Brahmos,  and  among  them  the  "  beloved 
disciple."  The  room  where  the  Indian  reformer  died  is 
kept  as  he  left  it,  and  was  fragrant  with  fresh  flowers.  The 
household  revere  him  not  only  as  husband,  father,  and 
grandfather,  but  also  as  a  prophet.  Two  portraits  of 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen  were  given  us,  together  with  a  set  of 
his  works.  The  best  utterances  of  this  great  man  are 
among  the  classics  of  the  Spirit.  That  afternoon  I  lectured 
on  "  The  Universal  Man  and  Saviour,"  a  leading  Hindu 
land-owner,  Rai  J.  N.  Chowdry,  presiding,  and  later  in 
the  evening  made  an  address  at  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's 
church. 

Saturday  afternoon  the  Missionary  Conference  of  Calcutta 
gave  us  a  delightful  reception  at  the  residence  of  Principal 
and  Mrs.  Morrison.  Most  of  the  time  was  taken  up  with 
addresses  made  by  Principal  Morrison  representing  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Kerry  of  the  English 
Baptist  Mission,  the  Reverend  J.  E.  Robinson  of  the  "  In- 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.— THE  BRAHMO  SOMA/.       359 

dian  Witness  "  representing  the  American  Methodists,  Dr. 
Macdonald  of  the  Free  church,  the  Reverend  G.  H.  Parsons 
of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  others ;  full  of  con- 
gratulation over  the  establishment  of  the  lectureship  and  of 
thanks  to  Mrs.  Haskell  for  her  wise  generosity.  After  the 
reception  I  gave  my  closing  lecture  on  the  "  Historic  Char- 
acter of  Christianity  as  establishing  its  Claim  of  Universal 
Authority." 

On  Sunday  afternoon,  January  third,  I  lectured  on  "  The 
Spiritual  World  of  Shakespeare  "  before  the  young  men  of 
Calcutta,  Justice  Banurji  presiding  and  making  a  beautiful 
address.  After  tea  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  Campbell  White 
at  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  I  drove  to 
St.  Andrew's  Church,  Dalhousie  Square,  and  preached  for 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Taylor  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The 
prominent  feature  in  this  large  building  is  a  pulpit  about 
twenty-five  feet  high,  which  the  preacher  ascends  by  a  nar- 
row spiral  staircase.  It  is  really  not  a  bad  place  to  preach 
from.  Looking  around  me,  I  saw  the  audience  seated  in 
the  lofty  gallery,  and  then  looking  into  the  depth  below  I 
descried  dimly  another  congregation.  In  this  way  the 
preacher  gets  a  double  inspiration.  On  Monday  morning, 
January  fourth,  after  visiting  Bethune  College,  I  called  on 
the  Maharajah  who  gave  the  reception  at  the  beginning  of 
my  Calcutta  experiences.  At  half-past  four  we  left  for 
Darjeeling,  the  representatives  of  four  religions  coming  to 
the  station  to  see  us  off. 

This  is  a  very  imperfect  account  of  one  of  the  most  de- 
lightful and  interesting  fortnights  that  I  have  ever  spent. 
I  have  not  written  of  the  breakfasts,  teas,  and  dinners  at 
which  I  met  many  pleasant  people,  nor  of  the  scores  of 
callers  who  turned  the  drawing-room  into  a  veritable  Con- 
gress of  the  Faiths,  nor  of  the  visit  which  I  made  at  the 
office  of  the  Maha  Bodhi  Journal,  where  I  met  a  Japanese 
Buddhist  priest,  a  Singhalese  Buddhist  priest,  and  other 
friends  of  Mr.  Dharmapala  ;  nor  of  conferences  with  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Newer  Hinduism,  one  of  whom  brought  us 


360  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

a  bushel  of  fruits  on  the  day  of  our  departure.  There  were 
incidents  and  associations  connected  with  my  visit  to  the 
church  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  which  would  furnish  mate- 
rials of  themselves  for  a  chapter.  Nor  have  I  spoken  of  the 
kind  offer  of  the  "  Indian  Mirror,"  a  Hindu  paper,  to  publish 
all  my  lectures  in  full.  I  should  have  been  glad  to  accept 
the  offer  if  I  had  not  been  under  appointment  to  give  the 
same  course  in  other  Indian  cities. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

DARJEELING,    LUCKNOW,    AND    CAWNPORE. 

A  FOUR  hours'  dusty  ride  brought  us  to  the  Ganges. 
**■  We  had  passed  through  the  suburbs  of  Calcutta, 
through  a  rich  prairie-like  country  of  rice-fields  and 
palm  groves,  and  in  the  darkness  of  early  evening  had 
reached  the  Mississippi-like  flood  of  the  sacred  river. 
Maruti,  our  "boy,"  comes  to  the  railway  carriage  with 
a  squad  of  light-footed,  quick-handed  coolies  ;  and  soon 
our  luggage,  excepting  the  "  boxes,"  which  have  been 
registered  "through"  to  Darjeeling,  is  on  the  heads  of 
these  nimble  servitors.  It  takes  five  of  them  usually  to 
carry  our  light  luggage,  which  they  do  very  quickly.  One 
German  "Trager"  with  his  strap  would  transport  it  all. 
The  terminus  of  the  railway  changes  with  the  variable 
banks  of  the  Ganges.  The  train  runs  out  on  a  temporary 
track  to  a  great  ferry  steamer.  On  this  we  have  our  dinner ; 
and  our  companions  are  a  young  English  gentleman  and 
two  ladies  who  were  table  companions  on  our  voyage  from 
Egypt.  They  have  come  for  tigers,  and  in  two  weeks  the 
preparations  for  the  hunt  will  be  ready  for  them  somewhere 
in  Central  India.  That  night  in  our  "  carriage  "  there  is 
much  noise  and  dust.  At  Siliguri  in  the  morning  we 
change  trains  and  have  breakfast.  We  are  still  in  a  vast 
level  country,  which  suggests  to  some  travellers  the  Russian 
steppes,  but  to  me  the  Western  prairies.  There  is  no  sign 
of  the  Himalayas  a  hundred  miles  away ;  and  the  pale, 
precise  outline  of  snowy  peaks  in  the  clouds,  which  from 
this  point  sometimes  appears  to  the  traveller,  suggesting 
"  an  inaccessible  paradise  hung  in  ether,  an  abode  of  the 
luminous,  sovereign  devas,"  did  not  greet  our  eyes. 


362  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

In  the  new  train,  which  we  boarded  at  Siliguri,  we  be- 
gan our  gradual  climb  to  the  foot-hills.  This  train  runs  on 
a  two-foot  gauge.  It  is  but  fifty  miles  to  Darjeeling,  but 
we  are  eight  hours  in  reaching  it  over  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  picturesque  routes  in  the  world.  In  about 
a  dozen  miles  we  get  to  the  foot-hills,  and  then  La  Signora 
and  I  were  glad  that  we  had  taken  the  comfortable  arm- 
chairs of  an  open  carriage.  The  cars  are  very  short,  less 
than  eight  feet  long,  in  order  to  accommodate  them  to 
the  sharp  curves.  The  line  winds  or  zigzags  as  it  climbs 
the  seventy-four  hundred  feet  up  the  rugged  gorges  and 
over  the  wooded  sides  of  the  huge-backed  hills.  A  pro- 
fusion of  vegetable  growths  surpasses  anything  I  have 
seen  before.  The  clumps  of  grass  look  like  sheaves  of 
small  sugar-canes,  while  the  clusters  of  bamboos  appear 
like  vigorous  and  thick-planted  saplings.  In  the  deep 
jungles  one  thousand  feet  below  us  wild  hogs,  bears,  deer, 
buffaloes,  tigers,  and  rhinoceroses  are  said  to  flourish,  find- 
ing an  almost  safe  home  in  the  impenetrable  wildernesses. 
Our  eyes  are  delighted  by  Nature's  growths,  so  lavishly 
abundant,  —  by  the  oaks  and  banyans,  the  mulberry  and 
India-rubber  trees,  the  figs  and  acacias,  the  peaches  and 
almonds  and  chestnuts,  by  the  intertwisted  or  down-hang- 
ing vines  of  almost  endless  length,  and  by  what  I  never 
had  seen  before,  except  in  conservatories,  the  lovely  tree 
ferns. 

Tea  plantations  come  in  sight,  and  they  look  very  pretty, 
—  prettier,  I  think,  than  the  close-pruned  vineyards  along 
the  Rhine.  It  is  the  abundant  rains,  produced  by  the  clouds 
from  the  Indian  Ocean  striking  the  Himalayan  wall,  that 
call  forth  this  superabundant  vegetation.  But  the  railway 
itself  interests  us  continually.  It  twists  and  turns,  now 
making  a  loop  so  that  we  pass  over  our  former  track ;  and 
sometimes  we  look  down  on  three  almost  parallel  lines,  the 
second  rising  above  the  first,  and  the  third  above  the 
second.  It  grows  very  cold  as  we  ascend  to  the  four 
thousand  feet  station,  and  when  five    thousand,  six  thou- 


DARJEELING,  LUCKNOW,   AND    CAVVNPORE.      363 

sand,  and  seven  thousand  feet  are  reached  we  feel  as  if 
winter  were  rushing  down  upon  us  from  the  high  home  of 
the  gods. 

One  of  the  striking  things  of  the  journey  to  Darjeeling, 
from  Siliguri,  is  the  gradual  change  in  the  types  of  the 
people.  The  delicate-looking,  thinly  clothed  Bengali,  with 
his  light-colored  robes,  gives  way  to  the  square-faced  Mon- 
gol mountaineer,  with  his  thick  dark  woollen  cloak,  his 
coarse,  unintellectual  face,  his  felt  boots  and  his  great 
triangular  yataghan,  big  enough,  as  one  has  said,  to  dis- 
embowel an  elephant.  We  have  struck  another  race. 
We  are  on  the  confines  of  a  new  world,  the  world  of 
Thibet,  China,  Tartary,  Siberia.  The  Himalayas  are  the 
dividing  wall  of  huge  tribes.  But  over  the  passes  the 
rough,  thick-legged,  and  warlike  Mongols  have  found  their 
way,  and  now  live  in  the  villages  which  are  strung  like 
coins  along  the  line  of  this  mountain  railway.  They  have 
brought  their  religion  with  them,  —  a  debased  kind  of 
Buddhism,  which  mingles  often  in  a  strange,  confused 
way  with  the  popular  Hinduism. 

At  the  Darjeeling  station  we  were  met  by  a  son  of 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  and  also  by  the  Reverend  A.  Turnbull 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  mission,  who  was  to  be  our 
host.  We  were  soon  settled  in  Mr.  TurnbulPs  mission 
house,  and  succeeded  after  a  while  in  thawing  ourselves 
out  by  his  hospitable  fire.  The  great  mountains  were 
covered  by  clouds,  and  we  had  hoped  that  on  the  morrow 
the  shining  home  of  the  Hindu  divinities  might  be  revealed 
to  us.  But  our  hopes  were  doomed  to  disappointment, 
although  about  ten  o'clock  one  patch  of  dazzling  white 
was  visible  high  up  amid  the  clouds.  It  was  so  high  up 
and  so  far  away  that  at  first  we  might  have  mistaken  it  for 
a  cloud.  But  no,  it  was  a  peak  soaring  ten  thousand  feet 
nearer  the  sky  than  the  loftiest  height  of  Switzerland.  In 
the  afternoon  we  strolled  through  the  rather  interesting 
bazaar  and  looked  in  at  the  Bazaar  mission  school.  In  the 
morning  we  had  seen  two  other  schools  where  the  children 


364  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

appeared  to  me  half  frozen.  Night  came,  and  the  clouds 
thickened,  and  we  went  to  bed  with  no  hope  of  seeing  on 
the  morrow  the  unspeakable  magnificence  of  that  view 
which  draws  travellers  to  Darjeeling  from  every  part  of 
the  world.  At  about  half-past  six  the  next  morning  our 
watchful  host  pounded  at  the  door,  with  the  joyful  cry, 
"  The  snows  are  out.  Come  at  once,  for  the  clouds  may 
soon  cover  them."  Barefooted  and  stockingfooted,  we  two 
rushed  across  the  frosty  lawn,  with  steamer  rugs  over  our 
shoulders,  and  saw  and  rejoiced  and  worshipped.  The 
spectacle  lasted  three  hours.  After  dressing  and  "  chota 
hazri,"  accompanied  by  our  host,  we  walked  through  one 
of  the  upper  streets  of  Darjeeling,  around  Observatory 
Hill,  with  eyes  turned  in  adoring  awe  to  the  heavens. 
Forty  miles  away  were  the  great  snow  peaks.  Perhaps 
ten  thousand  feet  below  their  summits  was  a  billowy  sea 
of  white  cloud.  These  white  giants  among  all  mountains 
appeared  to  have  no  pillared  hills  to  support  them.  There 
they  floated,  unspeakably  sublime,  the  double  peak  of 
Kinchinjunga  rising  nearly  twenty-nine  thousand  feet.  One 
is  satisfied  with  such  a  spectacle. 

There  is  no  tinge  of  disappointment,  but  only  a  continu- 
ous and  joyful  longing  after  the  perpetual  vision.  Below 
us  six  thousand  feet  the  valley  deepened  down  into  mists, 
beneath  which  was  an  invisible  stream.  Before  us  and 
around  us  was  a  broad  vista  of  colossal  and  darkly  wooded 
hills.  And  yonder,  forty  miles  away,  were  the  pillars  and 
gates  of  heaven.  The  sun  kissed  into  dazzling  radiance  the 
white  darlings  of  God,  from  whose  faces  the  morning  beams 
had  taken  the  cloudy  covering.  And  we,  gazing,  rapt  in 
joyful  astonishment,  uplifted,  satisfied,  felt  some  sympathy 
with  the  Aryan  forefathers  of  our  race,  who  found  in  these 
snowy  altitudes  the  inaccessible  habitations  of  the  gods. 
Here  were  virgin  summits  which  no  human  foot  had  ever 
touched,  on  which  no  mortal  may  ever  walk.  But  such 
visions  as  ours  could  never,  after  all,  repaganize  the  world. 
God  the  Creator  sits  enthroned  above  all  heights,  and  no 


DARJEELING,  LUC  KNOW,  AND    CAWNPORE.      365 

instructed    mind    hereafter    can    worship    aught    but    God 
Himself. 

We  passed  near  the  summer  home  of  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Bengal.  We  saw  the  villas,  churches,  sanitari- 
ums, and  schools  which  whiten  the  sides  of  the  great  hill. 
Then  we  climbed  a  few  hundred  feet  higher  to  get  a  new  view 
of  the  backbone  of  the  world,  the  mighty  mountain  wall, 
ending  in  the  frost-impearled  peaks,  whose  whiteness  the 
sun  changes  sometimes  to  flashing  gold,  such  as  the  Hindu 
poet  saw  when  he  named  that  summit  Kinchinjunga,  —  the 
Golden  Horn.  On  Observatory  Hill  we  beheld  not  only 
the  far-off  snows,  sublime  and  pure,  but  close  at  hand  idol- 
atry, ignoble  and  degrading.  The  bushes  flared  with  red, 
white,  and  yellow  rags,  tied  there  to  keep  away  demons,  and 
papers  covered  with  Buddhist  prayers  fluttered  in  the  morn- 
ing wind.  The  guardian  of  the  summit  knelt  before  a  shrine 
composed  of  three  upright  stones.  There  were  flowers 
stuck  in  an  old  bottle,  and  rice  offerings,  and  Siva's  trident, 
—  all  telling  how  Buddhism  and  Hinduism  had  been  mixed 
together.  The  Mongol  caretaker  gave  us  some  of  the  rags 
and  prayers  as  mementos  of  our  visit,  and  showed  us  the 
cave  where  he  slept.  The  whole  scene  stamped  upon  my 
mind  a  strong  impression,  and  deepened  the  conviction 
that  Nature,  however  sublime  her  disclosures,  is  unable  to 
dignify  worship  and  to  purify  character.  Human  eyes 
never  witness  anything  grander  than  what  was  unveiled  be- 
fore us ;  but  many  a  slave's  cabin  has  been  the  scene  of 
worship  infinitely  more  pure  and  spiritual  than  the  debasing 
and  mongrel  idolatries  upon  which  the  snow-peaks  of  the 
Himalayas  look  sadly  down. 

At  eleven  o'clock  we  left  Darjeeling  for  Calcutta.  The 
sellers  of  cheap  jewelry  gathered  about  the  train  :  the  women 
offered  us  their  enormous  ear-rings  and  breast-ornaments, 
made  of  blue  stone,  like  turquoise  ;  the  men  pressed  upon  us 
their  broad-bladed  daggers  ;  but  I  contented  myself  with  a 
simple  prayer-wheel,  revolving  which  I  could  say,  "  Om,  Mani, 
Padmi."    In  twenty  minutes  we  had  lost  sight  forever  of  the 


366  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

mountain  deities  ;  but  the  nearer  giants  of  the  hills  were 
friendly  and  sociable  ;  and  a  pleasant  young  Anglo-Indian  told 
us  of  leopard-hunting  and  tea-gardens  and  the  varied  experi- 
ences of  his  life.  In  the  early  evening  we  were  once  more  on 
the  plains  of  Bengal.  The  ride  to  Calcutta  was  dusty ;  but  we 
were  glad  to  be  where  warmth  ruled  again.  Before  eleven 
o'clock  the  next  morning  we  were  in  Calcutta,  and  at 
twelve  o'clock  I  was  lecturing  to  three  hundred  students  in 
Duff  College,  in  a  building  a  good  part  of  which  was  erected 
by  money  which  Dr.  Duff  raised  in  America.  That  evening 
we  said  good-by  regretfully  to  the  City  of  Colleges,  and  to 
the  friends  there,  of  all  religions,  who  had  treated  us  with 
constant  kindness.  That  night  our  engine  was  disabled, 
and  we  were  belated  four  hours,  and  unable  to  make  con- 
nections at  Mogul  Serai  for  Lucknow,  and  did  not  reach 
that  historic  city  until  Sunday  morning. 

Our  host  and  hostess  were  Reverend  and  Mrs.  William  A. 
Mansell  of  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  At 
twelve  o'clock  I  lectured  in  Reid  College,  at  four  o'clock 
we  heard  Bishop  Thoburn  preach  to  a  large  Indian  con- 
gregation in  Hindustani,  and  in  the  evening  I  lectured 
again  in  the  Methodist  Church.  The  North  Indian  Metho- 
dist Conference  was  in  session,  and  I  met  many  representa- 
tives of  aggressive  Christianity,  who  are  now  doing  very 
successful  work  in  India. 

But  our  readers  know  of  Lucknow  from  the  famous  siege, 
from  the  heroic  resistance  made  by  British  valor,  from  the 
names  of  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  and  Sir  Henry  Havelock, 
and  perhaps  from  Whittier's  poem  of  "  The  Pipes  at  Luck- 
now." Mr.  Mansell  informed  me  that  the  scepticism 
which  has  attempted  to  discredit  the  story  of  the  sick  Scot- 
tish maiden  who  heard  before  all  others  the  pipes  of  Have- 
lock and  the  wild  MacGregor's  clan-call  is  itself  now 
discredited.  We  visited  the  Residency,  —  a  mass  of  flower- 
covered  ruins,  —  within  which  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  gathered 
the  women  and  children,  and  around  which  raged  the  long 
and  terrible  battle.     British  valor  and  piety  had  never  per- 


DARJEELING,  LUCKNOW,  AND   CAWNPORE.      367 

haps  grander  illustrations  than  at  Lucknow.  The  garden 
about  the  ruined  Residency  is  one  of  the  most  beautifully 
kept  places  in  the  world.  We  saw  the  room  where  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence  was  wounded  by  a  shell,  and  near  by  the  ceme- 
tery with  his  tomb,  on  which  is  the  inscription,  dictated  by 
himself :  "  Here  lies  Henry  Lawrence,  who  tried  to  do  his 
duty.  May  God  have  mercy  on  his  soul."  It  is  hard  to 
realize  that  amid  so  much  peace  and  beauty  as  our  eyes 
looked  upon  the  demons  of  war  ever  shrieked  and  raged. 
But  Whittier's  words  were  ringing  in  my  ears,  — 

"  Day  by  day  the  Indian  tiger 

Louder  yelled  and  nearer  crept, 

Round  and  round  the  jungle  serpent 

Near  and  nearer  circles  swept." 

And  then  the  sad  and  terrible  story  is  told  of  anguished 
prayer  and  the  fearful  expectation  of  death,  and  worse  than 
death,  till  amid  the  roar  of  Sepoy  guns  the  sick  Scotch  girl, 
with  her  ear  to  the  ground,  faintly  heard  the  pipes  of  Have- 
lock,  until  after  delay  other  ears  caught  the  notes 'of  the 
droning  pibroch,  and  at  last  other  eyes  saw  the  far-off  dust- 
cloud,  which  changed  to  plaided  legions ;  whereupon 

"  Full  tenderly  and  blithesomely 

The  pipes  of  rescue  blew. 
Round  the  silver  domes  of  Lucknow, 

Moslem  mosque  and  pagan  shrine, 
Breathed  the  air  to  Britons  dearest,  — 

The  air  of  '  Auld  Lang  Syne.' 
O'er  the  cruel  roll  of  war  drums 

Rose  the  sweet  and  homelike  strain, 
And  the  tartan  clove  the  turban 

As  the  Goomtee  cleaves  the  plain." 

The  impressions  of  Lucknow  have  been  deepened  by  this 
day  at  Cawnpore,  —  a  large  and  flourishing  city  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  inhabitants,  but  interesting 
to  travellers  chiefly  on  account  of  the  terrible  massacre  of 
two  hundred  English  women  and  children  by  the  orders  of 
the  rebel  leader,  Nana,  at  the  time  of  the  mutiny  in  1857. 


368  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

The  dying  and  the  dead  were  thrown  into  a  well  near  the  place 
of  the  massacre,  July  sixteenth,  1857.  A  beautiful  grass- 
covered  mound  has  been  raised  over  the  well,  and  is  now 
crowned  by  a  Gothic  wall,  with  iron  gates,  within  which  is  a 
beautiful  figure  of  an  angel  in  white  marble.  Her  arms  are 
crossed  on  her  breast,  and  each  hand  holds  a  palm  of  victory. 
Above  the  archway  of  the  iron  gate  are  written  the  words  : 
"  These  are  they  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation." 
Not  far  from  the  tomb  is  the  tree  on  which  the  captured 
Sepoys  were  hanged  after  each  one  of  them  had  been  com- 
pelled to  lick  up  a  square  foot  of  the  bloody  floor  of  the 
house  where  the  diabolical  massacre  occurred. 

We  drove,  in  company  with  one  of  the  ladies  of  the 
Methodist  mission,  to  the  Memorial  Church,  and  also  to 
the  landing-place  on  the  Ganges  where  the  English  prison- 
ers were  treacherously  murdered  after  their  surrender.  One 
feels  that  with  a  great  price  England  has  gained  possession 
of  her  Indian  empire,  and  one  can  but  pray  that  her  benefi- 
cent dominion  may  grow  wiser  and  more  beneficent  with 
the  lapse  of  time,  and  that  animosities  like  those  which 
found  expression  at  Lucknow  and  Cawnpore  may  never  be 
revived.  On  the  veranda  in  front  of  the  window  where  I 
sit,  an  Indian  juggler  has  just  been  performing  his  tricks. 
Following  the  advice  given  in  Caine's  "  Picturesque  India  " 
for  those  who  come  to  Cawnpore,  I  let  it  be  known  to 
some  of  the  servants  that  a  Hindu  showman  would  be 
welcome.  And  an  hour  ago  he  appeared  with  all  his  appa- 
ratus tied  up  in  a  handkerchief.  For  us  the  mango-tree, 
with  its  fruit,  sprung  from  a  seed  in  a  pot  of  sand  ;  for  us 
the  rupee  fled  from  my  hand  to  the  centre  of  an  orange  ; 
and,  by  the  stroke  of  the  magician's  wand,  a  ragged  little 
fowl,  not  larger  than  a  robin,  was  transformed  into  a  flock  of 
ten  beautiful  chirping  birds.  The  singing  beggars  have  also 
gathered  around  the  "  Sahib  "  and  the  "  Mem  Sahib  "  this 
afternoon.  An  indiscreet  gift  of  bakshish,  altogether  too 
large,  evidently  started  the  rumor  in  Cawnpore  that  an 
American  millionaire  was  within  the  missionary  compound, 


DARJEELING,   LUCKNOW,   AND    CAWNPORE.      369 

and  a  great  assortment  of  poor  wretches  have  been  howling 
piteously  about  us.  A  tiny  performer  stood  on  his  head 
and  sang,  "  Daisy,  Daisy,  give  me  your  promise  true," 
and  our  hostess  assured  us  that  the  rash  gift  of  perhaps  a 
dime  would  gather  for  days  a  throng  of  importunate  mendi- 
cants about  her  veranda. 

The  panorama  of  India,  with  her  temples,  mosques, 
cities,  mountains,  and  various  peoples,  has  been  passing 
before  me  in  the  last  few  weeks,  with  swiftness,  strange- 
ness, and  splendor.  Bombay,  with  its  palaces;  Benares, 
with  its  ghats  and  temples ;  Calcutta,  with  its  colleges ; 
Darjeeling,  with  its  background  of  stupendous  mountains ; 
and  now  Lucknow  and  Cawnpore,  with  their  tragic  and 
heroic  memories,  —  such  are  some  of  the  elements  and 
phases  of  the  great  spectacle  which  passes  before  the  inner 
eye  as  I  sit  this  afternoon  in  the  home  of  an  American 
Methodist  missionary,  the  Reverend  C.  G.  Conklin,  here  in 
Cawnpore.  In  the  vision  appear  dusky  and  smiling  faces, 
dark  eyes  beneath  darker  hair,  looking  out  upon  me  in  the 
twilight  of  memory,  a  memory  that  already  grows  ancient 
and  poetic.  Into  the  eyes  of  almost  twoscore  congrega- 
tions have  I  looked,  and  they  have  been  kindly  as  well  as 
keen  with  intelligence. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

DELHI,    LAHORE,    AMRITZAR. 

A  VISIT  to  Delhi,  often  called  the  Rome  of  Asia,  is  an 
**•  introduction  to  the  grandeur  and  splendor  of  Shah 
Jehan,  the  builder,  grandson  of  Akbar.  We  were  the 
guests  of  the  Reverend  S.  S.  Thomas  of  the  English  Baptist 
mission,  in  a  rented  house  which  once  belonged  to  Lord 
Lawrence,  before  he  became  the  ruler  of  India.  Here  I 
met  Dr.  F.  E.  Clark,  the  leader  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
movement,  and  I  assisted  him  in  Christian  Endeavor  meet- 
ings both  in  Delhi  and  in  Lahore. 

My  first  lecture  at  St.  Stephen's  College  in  Delhi,  which 
is  conducted  by  the  Cambridge  mission,  was  on  the  "  Par- 
liament of  Religions,"  —  a  fact  of  some  little  interest  for 
the  reason  that  it  was  Akbar,  the  greatest  of  the  Mogul 
emperors,  who  called  together  his  debating-school  of  rival 
priests,  —  Hindu,  Moslem,  Buddhist,  and  Christian,  —  who 
contended  like  mediaeval  knights  in  a  tournament,  in  no 
spirit  of  fellowship  and  fraternity,  but  each  anxious  for  an 
imperial  verdict  in  his  favor.  Akbar  was  an  eclectic  in 
religion  and  in  matrimony. 

European  residents  have  their  homes  outside  most  Indian 
cities,  and  in  almost  all  our  explorations  of  the  native 
bazaars  we  drive  a  considerable  distance  through  English 
cantonments,  by  the  side  of  the  bungalows  inhabited  by 
missionaries,  civil  and  military  officers,  before  we  reach  the 
town.  Delhi,  although  it  has  a  population  of  nearly  two 
hundred  thousand,  and  although  its  bazaars  are  rich  with 
enamelled  jewelry,  exquisite  miniatures,  engraved  gems, 
cashmere  shawls,  embroideries,  potteries,  and  carved  ivory, 


DELHI,  LAHORE,  AMRITZAR.  37 1 

has  the  usual  squalid  look  of  Indian  cities,  dignified,  how- 
ever, by  the  walls  and  gates  of  the  town,  by  one  magnificent 
and  unequalled  mosque,  the  Jumma  Musjid,  and  most  of 
all  by  the  imperial  fort-palace,  which,  in  its  golden  prime, 
before  the  building  of  barracks  and  its  devastation  by  the 
English  military  occupants,  probably  was  unsurpassed  by 
any  royal  residence  in  the  world.  The  red  sandstone  walls 
enclosing  an  area  three  thousand  feet  long  by  five  hundred 
feet  wide,  are  grandly  imposing,  and  the  gateway  is  indeed 
noble.  Mr.  Fergusson,  the  architect,  calls  it  "  the  noblest 
entrance  that  belongs  to  any  existing  palace."  The  three 
objects  of  interest  within  the  royal  enclosure  are  the  public 
hall  of  audience,  the  private  hall  of  audience,  and  the  Pearl 
Mosque.  The  last  of  these  buildings  is  a  tiny  three- 
domed  marble  jewel,  called  by  one  the  daintiest  little  build- 
ing in  all  India,  and  which,  as  another  has  said,  "  should 
be  kept  in  a  jewel-case." 

The  hall  of  public  audience  is  a  red  sandstone  structure, 
richly  inlaid  with  marble,  open  on  three  sides,  and  sup- 
ported by  beautiful  colonnades.  The  Emperor's  throne  and 
canopy,  made  of  white  marble,  and  adorned  with  birds, 
flowers,  and  fruits  in  semi-precious  stones,  stood  in  the 
centre  of  the  back  wall  of  this  court  of  audience.  But  the 
crowning  glory  of  the  palace  was  the  Diwan-i-Khas,  or 
private  hall  of  audience,  an  open,  white-marble  building, 
richly  adorned  by  inlaid  work,  formerly  decorated  in  gold, 
while  the  ceiling  was  plated  with  silver.  In  the  centre  of 
this  superb  hall  still  stands  the  white  marble  dais  on  which 
was  formerly  placed  the  world-famous  peacock  throne, 
whose  value  was  from  twenty  million  to  thirty  million 
dollars.  Shah  Jehan  employed  the  services  of  a  French 
jeweller,  Austin  de  Bordeaux,  to  construct  this  matchless 
royal  seat,  which  was  decorated  with  the  figures  of  two  im- 
mense peacocks,  whose  spread  tails  were  inlaid  with  emer- 
alds, pearls,  and  various  colored  gems,  while  between  them 
perched  a  parrot,  said  to  have  been  carved  out  of  a  single 
emerald.     The  throne  itself  was  six  feet  long,  and  stood  on 


3/2  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

six  golden  legs,  incrusted  with  all  kinds  of  precious  jewels. 
The  Kohinoor  was  probably  set  at  one  time  in  Shah  Jehan's 
imperial  chair.  No  one  acquainted  with  human  cupidity 
would  expect  that  a  throne  into  which  had  been  worked  a 
cartload  of  jewels  would  last  forever,  especially  in  a  land  of 
changing  military  dynasties. 

As  I  sat  on  the  marble  dais,  where  all  this  splendor  once 
gleamed,  and  summoned  before  my  imagination  the  gor- 
geous scenes  on  which  the  proud  Emperor  gazed,  and  as  I 
thought  of  the  Persian  inscription  on  the  north  and  south 
arches  of  the  hall  — 

"  If  on  earth  be  an  Eden  of  bliss, 
It  is  this,  it  is  this,  none  but  this,"  — 

I  felt  anew,  not  only  the  transitoriness,  but  the  moral 
unworthiness,  of  the  glories  which  were  made  possible  by 
the  spoliation  of  millions  and  by  the  practical  enslavement 
of  a  whole  people.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the 
condition  of  the  Indian  nations  was  better  in  the  time  of 
Shah  Jehan  than  in  the  time  of  the  Queen-Empress  Vic- 
toria. Indeed  it  must  have  been  far  worse.  There  are 
native  patriots  to-day  who  imagine  that  the  "  simple  life  of 
India  "  is  preferable  to  the  "  luxurious  and  enervating  civil- 
ization "  of  the  West.  I  have  even  been  asked  if  I  would 
like  to  live  the  "  simple  life  of  India."  If  by  this  expres- 
sion is  meant  the  half-clothed  distress,  the  pitiful  hunger  of 
the  many  millions  who,  not  merely  in  years  of  famine,  but 
generally,  live  in  mud  hovels  without  the  comforts  that  are 
enjoyed  by  some  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  North  America, 
I  should  neither  like  it  for  myself  nor  for  the  poorest  and 
most  abject  people  of  Europe. 

One  feels  almost  hopeless  for  a  people  living  in  such 
material  conditions.  Of  course,  the  general  distress  is  ag- 
gravated in  this  year  of  plague  and  famine.  Thousands, 
we  are  told,  have  died  of  hunger.  The  British  government 
was  altogether  too  slow  in  bringing  relief,  and  it  seems  that 
it  was  finally  almost  driven  to  take  decisive  action  by  the 


DELHI,  LAHORE,   AMRITZAR.  373 

indignant  clamors  of  those  who  would  not  disbelieve  what 
their  own  eyes  saw.  I  myself  have  seen  pitiful  wretches, 
lean  and  haggard,  gathered  at  the  stations.  I  have  been 
told  of  deaths  from  famine  by  those  who  knew  the  special 
circumstances.  I  am  credibly  informed  that  mothers  have 
offered  to  sell  their  children  for  one  good  meal.  The 
camera  does  not  lie,  and  I  have  seen  pictures  of  some  of 
the  famished  subjects  of  the  British  Empire  taken  in 
December  at  Jubbulpore,  when  Lord  George  Hamilton 
was  dissuading  the  English  people  from  helping  the  suf- 
ferers because  the  "situation  had  not  fully  declared  itself"  ! 
But  taking  our  thoughts  from  the  awful  contrasts  of  splen- 
dor and  squalor,  we  leave  the  palace-fort,  drive  home  to 
breakfast,  and  then  go  to  the  Baptist  mission,  where  Dr. 
Clark  is  speaking  to  a  room  full  of  young  people,  mostly 
Indians,  on  the  claims  and  advantages  of  the  Christian 
Endeavor  work.  I  was  glad  to  add  my  testimony,  which 
an  interpreter  made  intelligible,  to  this  form  of  Christian 
organization  and  effort.  It  was  a  very  pretty  scene,  —  the 
girls,  with  their  white  saris,  or  head  coverings,  seated  on  the 
rug-covered  floor  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  with  the  young 
men  and  teachers  occupying  seats  around  the  sides.  The 
peacock  throne  was  a  tawdry  bit  of  workmanship  compared 
with  the  human  jewels  gathered  by  the  missionaries  out  of 
the  homeless,  darkened,  and  degraded  lives  of  the  Delhi 
population.  The  Jumma  Musjid,  which  we  next  visited,  is 
deemed  the  finest  mosque  in  Asia.  An  elevated  court 
reached  by  staircases,  surrounded  by  walls,  with  a  domed 
sanctuary  on  the  western  side,  facing  toward  Mecca,  with 
an  area  large  enough  for  twenty-five  thousand  worshippers, 
who  sometimes  are  gathered  here,  —  such  is  the  Jumma 
Musjid.  It  would  have  been  an  inspiring  spectacle  to  have 
seen  on  some  Friday  in  the  feast  of  Ramidan  the  army  of 
worshippers  going  through  their  devotions  with  mechanical 
precision.  In  this  land  of  polytheism  and  idolatry  it  is  not 
to  be  forgotten  that  there  are  more  than  fifty  million  stern 
monotheists  ready  to  fight  beneath  the  banner  which  carries 


374 


A    WORLD-PIL  GRIM  A  GE. 


the  words:  "There  is  but  One  God,  and  Mohammed  is 
His  Prophet." 

The  next  day  Mem  Sahib  and  I  took  the  celebrated 
drive  to  the  Kutub  Minar.  We  stopped  at  the  pillar  of  the 
Buddhist  Emperor  Asoka,  and  surveyed  the  great  plain 
around  Delhi,  covered  with  the  ruined  monuments  of  three 
religions.  I  doubt  if  anywhere  else  in  India,  perhaps  any- 
where else  outside  of  the  plain  of  Egyptian  Thebes,  are 
there  such  architectural  desolations  and  splendors  com- 
bined as  present  themselves  in  this  drive.  More  than  a 
dozen  empires  have  been  lost  and  won  in  battles  about 
Delhi.  And  yet  one  feels  in  this  an  almost  languid  inter- 
est, largely  because  the  history  lies  outside  the  main  current 
of  human  development.  At  Indraput  we  saw  the  beautiful 
Killa  Kona  mosque,  and  farther  on  we  visited  three  superb 
tombs,  —  one  of  them  that  of  Humayun,  the  founder  of  the 
Mogul  dynasty  of  Delhi  and  the  father  of  Akbar.  This 
was  built  by  his  widow.  But  the  tombs  of  these  two  and 
of  some  other  members  of  the  family  are  without  any  in- 
scriptions. They  are  of  beautifully  carved  white  marble. 
At  Delhi  we  began  to  realize  what  can  be  done  with  chis- 
elled marble.  There  is  a  screen  near  the  hall  of  private 
audience  in  the  palace-fort  which  is  so  exquisitely  patterned 
and  daintily  cut  out  that  it  looks  like  marble  lace. 

In  our  drive  we  also  visited  the  tomb  of  Nizamu-din,  a 
renowned  saint.  It  is  in  a  large  enclosure,  wherein  we  saw 
the  tank,  forty  feet  deep,  into  which,  with  my  encourage- 
ment, six  men  and  boys  leaped  from  the  lofty  domes  of  the 
neighboring  sepulchres.  As  this  is  a  sacred  well,  no  lives 
are  ever  lost  by  these  athletic  and  aquatic  performances. 
A  saintly  poet  is  also  buried  in  the  enclosure.  There  was 
a  red  cloth  over  his  tomb,  and  the  interior  of  his  sepulchre 
was  comfortably  carpeted.  We  saw  the  people  worshipping 
here,  and  heard  a  small  orchestra  and  chorus  play  and  sing 
at  this  shrine  of  poesy  and  piety.  Here  is  also  buried  a 
daughter  of  Shah  Jehan.  But  the  tomb  of  the  saint 
Nizamu-din  is  the  finest  of  all.     The  road  from  Delhi  to  the 


DELHI,   LAHORE,   AMRITZAR.  $?$ 

Kutub  Minar  brings  before  the  traveller's  eyes  many  scores 
of  Mohammedan  and  other  tombs,  most  of  them  ruins. 
And  the  Kutub  Minar  itself — the  most  beautiful  thing,  ex- 
cepting the  Taj,  I  have  seen  in  India  —  rises  up  from  the 
midst  of  a  mosque  and  other  buildings  which  time  and 
iconoclasm  have  shattered.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe 
the  soaring  splendor  and  beauty  of  the  great  five-storied 
tower,  rising  nearly  two  hundred  and  forty  feet  in  height. 
This  tower  of  victory,  made  of  red  sandstone  and  white 
marble,  has  been  standing  nearly  seven  hundred  years,  and 
seems  like  a  curious  and  graceful  palm,  or  rather  like  a 
colossal  jointed  bamboo  in  colored  stone.  We  both 
ascended  it,  Mem  Sahib  in  the  strong  arms  of  coolies,  and 
from  the  top  we  looked  out  on  the  ruin-covered  plain  clear 
to  the  gates  of  Delhi. 

Descending,  we  visited  the  ruined  mosque,  a  strange  mix- 
ture of  Mussulman  and  Hindu  architecture,  together  with 
an  ancient  iron  pillar,  dedicated  to  Vishnu,  and  erected,  it 
is  said,  in  the  fourth  century.  Orders  had  been  left  at  the 
Dak-bungalow  for  tiffin,  and  for  the  first  and  only  time  we 
enjoyed  the  opportunity  for  rest  and  refreshment  afforded 
by  an  institution  managed  by  the  government  of  India  for 
the  benefit  of  travellers.  The  price  of  food,  drinks,  and 
lodging  is  fixed  by  State  regulation,  and  everything  about 
this  bungalow  was  to  us  quite  satisfactory.  We  found  the 
heat  rather  oppressive  in  our  eleven-mile  drive  homeward. 
But  it  was  comfortable  during  the  night,  which  was  occu- 
pied by  our  railway  journey  northward  to  Lahore,  the  capi- 
tal of  the  Punjaub.  Indeed,  we  did  not  reach  Lahore  until 
four  o'clock  the  next  afternoon. 

We  find  Indian  railway  travel,  on  the  whole,  quite  com- 
fortable, partly  because  we  have  been  exceedingly  fortu- 
nate in  always  having  a  first-class  carriage  to  ourselves. 
The  great,  broad  seat  is  not  particularly  easy,  like  our 
luxurious  chairs,  for  the  sitter,  but  one  can  stretch  him- 
self out  on  it  in  the  daytime,  and,  with  the  aid  of  his 
blankets,  make  a  very  good  bed  of  it  at  night.     There  is  a 


376  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

lavatory  attached  to  each  carriage,  and  the  windows  and 
shutters  are  easily  adjusted  so  as  to  secure  good  air  or  pro- 
tection from  the  sun.  Some  of  the  windows  have  brown  or 
blue  colored  glass,  to  shield  the  eyes  from  excessive  light. 
All  the  cars  have  "  topes  "  on.  That  is,  they  have  a  double 
roof  for  protection  from  the  heat.  The  trains  are  slow  and 
the  carriages  are  not  very  steady,  so  that  reading  and  writ- 
ing are  difficult.  This,  on  the  whole,  has  been  an  advantage, 
for  in  the  long  railway  journeys  I  have  had  my  only  rest 
from  the  excitement  and  weariness  of  constant  lecturing, 
visiting,  correspondence,  and  sight-seeing.  The  first-class 
cars  are  painted  white. 

The  expense  of  first-class  travelling  is,  on  some  lines, 
eight  times  that  of  third-class  travelling.  What  has  sur- 
prised me  as  much  as  anything  in  India  is  that  in  this 
impoverished  land  the  third-class  cars  are  almost  always 
crowded  with  natives.  When  we  come  to  a  station,  they 
swarm  out  and  fill  their  brass  bowls  with  water  and  buy  the 
sweetmeats,  cakes,  and  condiments  so  dear  to  the  Indian 
palate.  Our  meals  are  often  good,  though  I  have  grown  a 
little  tired  of  rice  and  curry.  The  meats  in  India  are  in- 
different, but  the  made  dishes  are  often  excellent,  and  one 
may  purchase  soda-water  for  two  annas  a  bottle.  Breakfast 
and  tiffin  cost  one  and  a  half  rupees ;   dinner,  two  rupees. 

It  was  January  fourteenth  when  we  arrived  in  Lahore. 
On  the  morning  of  that  day  we  ran  into  a  fine  rain,  and 
thanked  God  for  this  inestimable  mercy.  People  truly 
said,  "  It  rained  gold  !  "  A  similar  rain  over  all  India 
we  were  told  would  almost  put  an  end  to  the  famine  by 
insuring  the  next  crop,  and  thus  lowering  the  price  of  food. 
As  our  train  passed  through  Lodiana,  from  which  our  whole 
mission  is  named,  I  thought  of  Dr.  E.  M.  Wherry,  who  had 
lived  here  for  years,  and  whose  name,  as  we  found,  is  greatly 
loved  and  honored  throughout  the  mission.  At  the  Lahore 
station  we  were  met  by  the  Reverend  Dr.  J.  C.  R.  Ewing,  Prin- 
cipal of  Forman  Christian  College.  His  family  are  now  in 
America,  and  we  were  taken  to  the  delightful  home,  which 


DELHI,  LAHORE,   AMRITZAR.  Z77 

Dr.  Ewing  now  makes  his  own,  of  the  Reverend  and  Mrs. 
H.D.  Griswold.  Mr.  Griswold,  a  Sanscrit  and  Urdu  scholar, 
teaches  the  Scriptures  and  philosophy  in  Forman  College, 
and  is  highly  esteemed  as  one  of  our  ablest  and  most  schol- 
arly men.  At  his  home  during  our  five  days  in  Lahore  we 
enjoyed  not  only  the  company  of  Dr.  Ewing,  but  also  that 
of  the  Reverend  and  Mrs.  Arthur  H.  Ewing  of  the  Christian 
Boys'  High  School  in  Lodiana,  —  a  school  with  an  enrolment 
of  more  than  a  hundred  students,  that  is  doing  important 
work,  and  among  other  things  is  preparing  boys  for  the  col- 
lege in  Lahore.  Mr.  Ewing  edits  the  Urdu  paper  of  the 
Mission.  I  may  also  add  that  Mr.  Griswold  is  the  acting 
pastor  of  the  native  church  in  Lahore,  and  that  he  is  now 
preparing  a  pamphlet  in  which  he  exposes  the  errors  of  the 
Arya  Somaj,  who  are  very  active  in  the  Punjaub  and  even 
bitter  in  their  opposition  to  Christianity.  We  found  Dr. 
Clark  at  the  Griswolds',  and  were  able  shortly  after  our 
arrival  to  attend  the  closing  meeting  of  the  Christian  En- 
deavor Convention  which  for  two  days  he  had  been  hold- 
ing. I  wish  that  all  my  Christian  Endeavor  readers  could 
have  seen  what  we  saw,  and  heard  what  we  heard  from  Dr. 
Clark  at  this  meeting.  Delegates  had  come  from  various 
societies  in  the  Punjaub.  The  singing  was  spirited  and 
spiritual.  After  I  had  given  an  address  Dr.  Clark  made 
one  of  his  tender  and  searching  speeches,  leading  up  to  the 
Consecration  Meeting  which  was  to  close  the  convention. 
As  the  names  of  the  different  societies  were  called,  they  rose, 
in  numbers  ranging  from  one  to  half  a  score,  and  expressed 
their  feelings  and  purposes,  usually  in  Scripture  selections. 
I  was  greatly  moved  when  I  saw  and  heard  the  testimony 
given  by  the  Reverend  N.  P.  Das,  a  beautiful  man  and  a  sweet 
Christian  soul,  now  pastor  of  the  Lodiana  Church,  the  old- 
est of  the  Presbyterian  churches  in  India.  Not  only  did  I 
come  to  have  a  new  appreciation  of  the  service  of  the  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  Society,  but  I  felt  also,  and  as  never  before, 
the  moral  sublimity  of  that  mission  work  whose  fruits  are 
such  earnest  and  loving  confessors  of  Christ  as  rose  in  this 


378  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

convention  and  renewed  their  consecration.  Things  seen 
are  greater  than  things  heard,  and  I  sometimes  feel  that 
with  all  my  reading  and  with  all  my  familiarity  with  the  tes- 
timony of  missionaries,  I  never  before  had  any  adequate 
understanding  of  what  it  means,  for  earth  and  heaven,  for 
time  and  eternity,  to  bring  one  soul  to  the  light  of  Christ. 

These  days  in  Lahore  in  the  company  of  Dr.  Ewing  and 
his  friends  were  almost  like  getting  back  to  America.  The 
close  and  delightful  fellowships  with  such  Americans  with 
whom  we  had  the  joy  of  those  who  think  and  feel  alike  con- 
cerning the  things  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  will  be  gratefully 
cherished.  Dr.  Ewing  has  a  great  name  in  India  as  a  foremost 
Christian  educator,  beloved  by  missionaries  of  all  churches 
and  highly  respected  by  non-Christians.  A  company  of 
Brahmos  who  called  last  Sunday,  speaking  of  Dr.  E wing's 
approaching  visit  to  America,  said  to  me,  "  Please  do  not 
keep  him  there  one  day  longer  than  is  absolutely  necessary." 
We  heard  much  of  Dr.  Ewing  before  our  arrival  in  Lahore, 
and  ever  since  our  departure  we  have  heard  men  sound  his 
praises.  We  have  every  reason  to  be  thankful  for  the  high 
character  and  sympathetic  wisdom  of  the  American  mission- 
aries in  India.  The  morning  after  my  arrival  I  lectured  to 
the  students  of  Forman  Christian  College,  one  of  the  finest 
bodies  of  young  men  that  I  have  seen,  and  a  larger  com- 
pany of  students,  I  am  told,  than  is  found  in  the  Government 
College  at  Lahore.  The  Punjaubis  are  physically  more  stal- 
wart than  the  Bengalis.  The  new  college  building  was  the 
gift  of  Miss  Kennedy  of  New  York.  What  a  glorious  his- 
tory is  associated  with  the  names  of  Forman  and  Newton 
here  in  Northern  India  !  We  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
one  of  the  sons  of  Dr.  Newton  and  the  widow  of  Dr.  For- 
man, and  also  quite  a  number  of  the  missionary  ladies  who 
had  come  to  Lahore  to  attend  the  convention  and  the  lec- 
tures. Many  will  remember  what  reverence  was  paid  by 
all  classes  of  the  Lahore  community,  Hindu,  Mohammedan, 
and  Sikh,  when  Dr.  Forman  died,  and  the  story  is  told  of 
the  sister  of  an  Anglican  Bishop  who,  coming  to  the  city 


DELHI,  LAHORE,  AMRITZAR.  379 

and  making  a  call  upon  a  leading  non-Christian  family, 
thought  that  it  would  make  a  favorable  impression  to  have 
it  known  that  she  was  the  sister  of  the  Bishop.  She  was 
surprised  to  receive  this  reply,  "  We  are  not  acquainted 
with  the  Bishop,  but  if  you  are  related  to  Dr.  Forman  we 
are  happy  to  make  your  acquaintance  !  "  The  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  came  to  Lahore  at  the  invitation  of  the 
American  Presbyterians,  and  as  one  of  the  Church  mis- 
sionaries was  speaking  to  some  of  the  natives  about  the 
claims  of  Christianity,  they  said  :  "  We  do  not  intend  to 
become  Christians ;  but  if  we  do  we  want  to  be  Christians 
of  Dr.  Forman's  kind  !  " 

Most  of  the  inhabitants  of  Lahore  are  Mussulmans. 
There  are  more  than  eighty  thousand  of  these  disciples  of 
Islam,  while  the  Hindus  number  about  fifty-four  thousand 
and  the  Sikhs  five  thousand.  Among  the  two  hundred  and 
ninety-eight  students  enrolled  in  Forman  College,  thirty- 
eight  are  Christians,  sixteen  are  Sikhs,  while  the  Hindus 
considerably  outnumber  the  Mohammedans.  Such  colleges 
as  this  are,  in  my  judgment,  of  essential  importance  in  the 
evangelization  of  India,  although  the  number  of  conversions 
and  baptisms  in  college  life  may  be  few.  Such  is  the  power 
of  prejudice,  bigotry,  and  caste  that  if  even  a  small  number 
of  these  college  men  were  baptized  in  one  year,  such  an 
event  would  produce  violent  agitation,  "  would  nearly  empty 
the  class-rooms,  and  the  institution  would  for  a  time  be 
shunned  as  a  pestilence-haunted  place."  This  fact  shows 
the  supreme  importance  of  the  Christian  training  of  boys  in 
the  preparatory  schools.  But  the  college  itself  is  a  prepara- 
tory school  for  the  sure-coming  exodus  of  a  host  from  the 
Egypt  of  Hinduism  and  Islam.  The  colleges  of  India  have 
made  possible  such  English-speaking  missions  as  those 
of  President  Seelye,  Joseph  Cook,  Dr.  Pentecost,  John 
McNeill,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Student  Volunteer  Move- 
ments, and  the  India  Lectureship.  Forman  College  ranks 
first  in  the  Punjaub  in  the  success  of  its  students  in  passing 
the  university  examinations. 


380  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

I  am  assured  by  Dr.  Ewing  that  the  spirit  in  which  for 
more  than  forty  years  the  Presbyterian  work  has  been  carried 
on  here  has  been  that  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  —  that 
is,  the  spirit  of  Christian  courtesy.  I  was  glad  to  meet  in 
Lahore  the  son  of  one  of  my  Christian  correspondents,  the 
Honorable  Maya  Das,  and  I  was  sorry  that  another  of  these 
correspondents,  the  Pundit  Shiv  Narain,  the  founder  of  the 
Deva  Dharm  Somaj,  did  not  present  himself.  He  has  re- 
lapsed into  Hinduism.  We  had  the  pleasure,  however,  of 
meeting  Mr.  B.  B.  Nagarkar,  of  Bombay,  one  of  the  Brahmo 
delegates  to  Chicago,  who  seconded,  in  a  bright  and  sym- 
pathetic speech,  the  vote  of  thanks  given  at  my  closing 
lecture.  One  of  our  happiest  experiences  in  India  was  an 
hour  spent  at  our  Boys'  School  known  as  the  Rang  Mahal, 
intimately  associated  with  the  name  of  Dr.  Forman  and  now 
greatly  needing  a  new  building.  It  was  the  Prize  Distribu- 
tion day,  and  Mrs.  Barrows  distributed  to  the  winners  perhaps 
a  hundred  volumes,  among  which  were  Webster's  Diction- 
aries, Atlases,  well-bound  English  Bibles,  and  books  of  good 
poetry.  The  three  hundred  and  fifty  boys,  most  of  whom 
sat  upon  the  ground  in  the  open  court,  were  attired  in 
costumes  and  decked  with  turbans  of  all  colors,  so  that  they 
looked  like  a  flower-garden.  It  was  as  bright  and  happy 
looking  a  company  of  children  and  youth  as  I  ever  saw  to- 
gether. My  young  friends  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea 
would  have  been  greatly  interested  in  the  songs  and  recita- 
tions which  we  heard  in  English,  Sanscrit,  Urdu,  Punjabi, 
and  Persian.  What  American  could  listen  unmoved  to 
these  Punjabi  boys  rendering  a  dialogue  from  William  Tell 
about  freedom  from  oppression,  or  reciting  the  second 
chapter  of  Matthew,  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  the  "  Burial 
of  Sir  John  Moore,"  Phillips  Brooks's  "  O  Little  Town 
of  Bethlehem,"  and  Longfellow's  "  Psalm  of  Life  "  !  At 
this  High  School  I  met  an  old  native  Christian  who 
told  me  with  pride  that  he  was  one  of  Dr.  Forman's  first 
scholars. 

We  visited  the  Forman  Memorial  Chapel,  a  new  building 


DELHI,  LAHORE,  AMRITZAR.  38  I 

on  a  busy  street,  where  the  gospel  is  daily  proclaimed,  and 
Sunday  morning  we  heard  the  venerable  Reverend  Mr.  Chat- 
terjee,  who  will  be  remembered  as  having  visited  our 
churches  in  America,  preach  in  the  vernacular  to  a  large  audi- 
ence of  native  Christians  and  others.  We  enjoyed  the 
service,  although  I  understood  but  two  words,  "civilization  " 
and  "  consecration."  I  gave  in  Lahore  four  of  the  Indian 
lectures,  —  three  in  the  Town  Hall  and  one,  Sunday  evening, 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Dr.  Sime,  who  is  at  the  head 
of  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction  in  the  Punjaub  and 
is  himself  an  earnest  Christian,  presided  at  the  first  of  the 
Town  Hall  lectures ;  the  Bishop  of  Lahore,  a  scholarly  man 
and  a  contributor  to  the  Presbyterian  school-work,  presided 
at  the  second ;  Colonel  Robinson,  the  English  Commis- 
sioner, took  the  chair  at  the  third.  The  arrangements  made 
for  these  lectures  were  admirable  ;  and  the  audiences,  com- 
posed mostly  of  thoughtful  Hindus  and  Moslems,  listened 
with  patient  attention  to  my  earnest  argument  for  the  world- 
victory  of  Christianity.  The  final  vote  of  thanks  was  moved 
by  Justice  Chatterjee,  perhaps  the  leading  Hindu  of  Lahore. 
I  regard  the  opportunity  given  me  in  the  Punjaub  capital  as 
one  of  the  privileges  of  my  life. 

Yesterday  we  turned  our  faces  southward,  spending  most 
of  the  day  in  the  city  of  Amritsar,  where  we  were  entertained 
by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  H.  M.  Clark  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society.  This  sacred  city  of  the  Sikh  nation,  and  one  of 
the  chief  commercial  portals  from  India  into  Central  Asia, 
has  a  population  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand, and  is  the  wealthiest  city  in  the  Punjaub.  The 
Golden  Temple,  which  rises  from  the  sacred  tank  in  the 
centre  of  the  city,  is  the  main  attraction  in  Amritsar,  except 
to  those  who  find  one  of  the  chief  joys  of  life  in  the  exami- 
nation and  purchase  of  beautiful  carpets.  I  confessed  to 
extreme  weariness,  and  inquired  of  Dr.  Clark  if  it  would 
take  much  time  to  see  the  Golden  Temple.  He  replied 
that  it  would  take  three  days  to  see  it  thoroughly.  I  told 
him  that  I  would  give  one  hour.     He  replied  that  it  was  an 


382  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

American  who  said,  "  I  guess  we  '11  do  the  Alps  to-day,  and 
I  reckon  we  '11  do  the  Apennines  to-morrow  !  " 

The  Golden  Temple  is  well  worth  seeing.  It  is  tiny,  but 
beautifully  situated  in  a  little  lake,  the  Pool  of  Immortality, 
which  gives  to  it  its  sacredness.  The  domes  are  apparently 
all  of  gold,  and  this  beautiful  shrine  is  exquisite  as  it  gleams 
both  above  and  from  the  water.  It  is  approached  by  a 
marble  pavement,  and  inside  it  is  elaborately  decorated. 
This  is  the  temple  most  revered  by  the  Sikhs,  a  religious 
sect,  somewhat  military  in  character,  which  rose  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  monotheistic,  with  a  high  and  pure 
morality.  Its  sacred  scripture  is  the  Granth,  which  forbids 
idolatry.  But  such  are  the  tendencies  here  to  idolatrous 
superstition  that  a  great  copy  of  the  Sikh  bible  is  worshipped 
in  the  Golden  Temple.  We  saw  the  high-priest  sitting  be- 
hind the  covered  book,  while  hundreds  of  people  streamed 
into  the  beautiful  place  and  cast  before  it  their  offerings  of 
rice,  flowers,  and  shell  money.  So  far  as  I  know,  this  is  the 
only  place  in  the  world  where  literal  bibliolatry  can  be  seen. 
In  another  part  of  the  temple  we  witnessed  a  strange  spectacle. 
Relays  of  men  were  reading  the  Sikh  bible  through  aloud. 
They  were  under  contract  to  do  it,  and  the  reading  did  not 
cease  day  or  night.  All  this  was  for  the  purpose  of  stop- 
ping the  plague  in  Bombay.  After  a  delightful  lunch  party 
at  Dr.  Clark's,  a  visit  to  the  carpet  factory  on  the  part  of 
Mem  Sahib,  where  she  saw  the  autographs  of  the  Czarowitz, 
Prince  Albert  Victor,  and  other  distinguished  visitors,  came 
the  lecture  in  the  City  Theatre,  and  then  a  long  and  re- 
freshing night  ride  on  the  way  to  this  pearl  of  Indian  cities, 
Agra,  where  we  are  the  guests  of  the  Reverend  J.  P. 
Haythornthwaite  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  Princi- 
pal of  St.  John's  College. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

AGRA    AND    THE    TAJ  MAHAL. 

AGRA  is  the  crown  of  Asiatic  cities,  and  the  Pearl 
Mosque  and  the  Taj  Mahal  are  the  fairest  jewels  in 
this  diadem.  Three  names  shine  in  Agra,  —  Akbar,  greatest 
and  wisest  of  Mogul  emperors,  the  builder  of  the  Fort ;  Shah 
Jehan,  his  grandson,  the  builder  of  the  Pearl  Mosque  and 
of  the  Taj  Mahal ;  and  Mumtaz-i  Mahal,  the  Chosen  of 
the  Palace,  the  Emperor's  wife,  for  whom  he  built  the  most 
beautiful  of  all  sepulchres. 

Akbar  is  a  name  great  and  pure  enough  to  achieve  and 
hold  world-wide  reverence.  He  was  intrusted  with  a 
most  difficult  task,  that  of  wisely  and  successfully  governing 
an  empire  composed  of  different  races  and  religions. 
Himself  a  Moslem,  a  disciple  of  the  Koran  which  enjoins 
the  extermination  of  infidels,  he  was  better  and  more  merci- 
ful than  his  own  scriptures,  and  his  name  has  become  the 
synonym  of  religious  toleration.  In  the  famous  Congress 
of  the  Creeds,  which  he  assembled  at  his  palace  in  Fateh- 
pur-Sikri,  were  gathered  representatives  of  the  leading  re- 
ligions of  Asia,  although  it  is  still  a  matter  of  historical  dispute 
whether  or  not  Buddhists  were  present.  But  the  spirit  of 
Akbar  was  more  tolerant  than  that  of  the  priests  and  moul- 
vies  who  contended  before  him.  The  Jesuit  "  padres " 
who  had  made  a  forty-three  days'  journey  from  Goa  on 
the  West  Coast  in  response  to  the  invitation  of  the  Em- 
peror, appear  to  have  employed  the  language  of  theological 
acrimony ;  for  the  report  has  come  down  to  us  that  they 
applied  to  Mohammed  the  name  and  attributes  of  the  devil. 
Still  these  clever  men  made  a  great  impression  upon  Akbar, 


384  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

for  he  intrusted  to  them  the  instruction  of  his  second  son, 
Mourad,  and  the  young  prince  used  to  begin  his  lessons 
with  the  words  "  O  Thou  whose  names  are  Jesus  and 
Christ."  Akbar  chose  his  wives  from  women  of  various 
faiths,  and  permitted  them  to  worship  each  in  her  own  way. 
Although  his  scheme  of  a  practical  religious  eclecticism 
was  a  failure,  his  vision,  which  Tennyson  has  embodied  in 
crystal  poetry,  was  more  than  a  dream.  The  world  rever- 
ences him  who  cherished  it,  and  surely  some  evidences  of 
truth  and  wisdom  were  not  wanting  to  it.  If  Comparative 
Theology  should  ever  build  a  temple,  Akbar's  would  be  a 
chief  figure  within  it. 

Yesterday  we  stood  by  the  alabaster  slab  in  Akbar's 
magnificent  tomb  on  which  are  written  the  ninety-nine 
names  of  God.  Many-sided  are  the  aspects  of  the  Divine 
Nature,  and  many  are  the  gates  of  the  palace  of  darkness 
out  of  which  men  have  walked  into  the  light  of  the  Eternal. 
At  Secundra,  six  miles  from  Agra,  is  the  massive  red-sand- 
stone, pagoda-like  structure,  inlaid  with  white  marble,  in 
whose  gloomy  vault  rests  the  body  of  the  great  Emperor. 
But  on  the  highest  platform,  under  the  blue  sky,  is  the 
beautiful  cloister  of  lustrous  marble,  cut  into  lattice-work, 
in  the  centre  of  which  is  the  cenotaph  on  which  in  Persian 
are  inscribed  the  words  "  God  is  Greatest,"  "  May  His 
Glory  Shine."  Near  by  is  a  marble  pillar,  formerly  cov- 
ered with  gold,  which  once  held  the  Kohinoor,  most 
precious  of  all  diamonds.  The  true  Kohinoor,  the  Moun- 
tain of  Light,  in  the  world  of  religion,  is  genuine  toleration  ; 
and  this  has  been  removed  from  Moslem  hands,  and  gleams 
in  the  treasury  of  the  Empress-Queen,  whose  dominion  has 
been  called  "  the  hugest  outstanding  Parliament  of  Re- 
ligions in  the  world."  As  I  stood,  in  the  early  morning  of 
this  January  day,  looking  out  on  the  world  of  Indian  life 
and  the  green  fresh  beauty  of  the  Indian  landscape,  from 
the  marble  balcony  of  the  Emperor's  tomb,  I  could  but 
remember  how  the  Emperor's  name  was  honored  by  those 
that,  a  few  years  before,  had  gathered  from  all  the  world  in 


AGRA   AND    THE    TAJ  MAHAL.  385 

an  American  city  whose  foundations  were  not  laid  till 
more  than  two  centuries  after  Akbar  had  ended  his 
weary  life. 

Inside  the  magnificent  red  wall  of  the  Agra  Fort  we  saw 
what  is  left  of  the  palaces  and  mosques  of  the  Mogul  rulers. 
These  buildings  are  now  jostled  by  English  barracks,  and 
some  of  them  are  sadly  mutilated  by  cannon-balls  ;  but  they 
surpass  by  far  anything  that  we  have  yet  seen  of  Moham- 
medan architecture.  The  audience  halls;  the  suites  of 
palatial  rooms ;  the  latticed  balconies,  with  their  superb 
views  over  the  Jumna  ;  the  balcony  from  which  Shah  Jehan, 
in  the  years  when  he  was  the  State  prisoner  of  his  own  son, 
Aurangzeb,  used  to  gaze  along  the  river  at  his  wife's  beauti- 
ful tomb,  the  Taj  Mahal ;  and  above  all,  that  purest  and 
most  perfect  of  Moslem  shrines,  the  Moti-Musjib,  or  Pearl 
Mosque,  with  its  cloistered  court  and  three  white  airy 
domes,  — who  that  has  seen  all  this  can  forget  the  day  and 
the  hour  when  such  visions  of  white  splendor  became  a  part 
of  his  life  ? 

But  what  I  have  written  of  tomb  and  mosque  has  been 
put  down  mostly  because  of  the  hesitation  which  I  feel  in 
approaching  the  Incomparable,  the  Immortal  —  I  will  not 
call  it  temple  or  sepulchre  —  whose  stately  dome  of  pearl 
haunts  the  life  of  all  those  who  have  gazed  upon  it  in 
moonlight  or  sunlight  or  starlight,  and  permitted  its  tender 
and  pathetic  magic  to  penetrate  and  captivate  their  souls. 
I  did  not  feel  the  impatience  which  many  travellers  have 
recorded  to  see,  in  close  proximity,  the  palace-crown  of  all 
the  marble  structures  now  borne  on  the  bosom  of  the 
earth.  My  feeling  was  rather  one  of  awe,  mingled  with  a 
deep  loving  joy  that  such  a  marriage  with  the  spirit  of  love 
and  beauty  was  now  awaiting  me.  I  felt  like  lingering  in 
the  halls  of  anticipation,  like  asking  the  driver  not  to  hasten 
over  the  moonlit  road  which  led  us  to  the  great  gateway  of 
the  garden-court  in  whose  centre  the  Taj  stands.  I  was 
glad  to  pause  and  to  look  with  wondering  admiration  at 
this  magnificent  portal  of  red   sandstone,   surmounted  by 

25 


386  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

marble  cupolas  and  decorated  with  sacred  sentences  from 
the  Koran.  But  when  at  last  the  gate  was  entered  and 
the  eyes  looked  up  the  long  cypress-shaded  avenue  to  the 
white  and  stately  mausoleum,  bordered  with  gardens  and 
streams  and  fountains,  lifting  its  bubble  of  a  dome  into  the 
moonlit  heavens,  then  and  there  the  soul's  marriage  with 
the  spirit  of  the  beautiful  was  consummated  in  a  deep  of 
holy  ecstasy.  Slowly,  almost  reluctantly,  we  walked  the 
long  shaded  path  leading  toward  the  white  marvel,  whose 
four  sentinel  towers  appeared  to  guard  it  joyously  like 
slender  white-robed  maidens  standing  about  a  princess- 
bride.  We  sat  down  by  the  central  fountain  to  look  at  the 
great  platform  of  marble,  and  the  stately  portal  which  rose 
above  it,  and  the  half-shadowed  recesses  on  either  side,  and 
the  two  tiny  cupolas  and  slender  minarets  above,  till  the 
vision  ended  in  the  swelling  and  soaring  white  dream  of  a 
dome  which  seems  almost  to  lift  the  whole  marvellous  fabric 
into  the  skies.  I  was  prepared  by  the  pictures  and  by 
the  words  of  travellers,  historians,  and  poets,  for  some- 
thing supremely  beautiful  which  might  be  likened  to  a 
cut  and  polished  jewel ;  but  I  was  not  prepared  to  find 
this  jewel  of  heroic  proportions,  its  loveliness  expanded 
into  majesty,  its  grace  wedded  to  magnificence.  What 
we  saw  was  a  crown,  but  it  was  the  crown  of  Asia  and 
of  the  world ;  it  was  the  greatest  and  fairest  expression  of 
royal  love,  wielding  unlimited  wealth  and  power,  ever 
inscribed  on  the  checkered  page  of  history.  The  waters 
glassed  and  reflected  the  stately  and  pearly  shrine ;  the 
pointed  cypress-trees  and  the  gloomier  and  darker  foliage 
beyond  were  not  only  the  artistic  setting  of  the  mighty 
jewel,  but  by  contrast  deepened  its  splendor,  while  their 
shadows  seemed  sympathetic  with  that  royal  grief  with 
which  our  hearts  were  instinctively  in  accord.  Then  the 
softness  and  stillness  and  brightness  of  the  moonlit  night 
made  an  atmosphere  bathing  everything  and  filling  our  own 
souls  with  thoughts  and  dreams,  with  memories  and  hopes, 
beautifying  and  sanctifying  all  life. 


< 

< 


AGRA   AND    THE    TAJ  MAHAL.  387 

Finally,  we  mounted  the  marble  platform,  where  an  army 
might  stand.  Oh,  what  artists  these  Moslem  architects  and 
their  Christian  assistant  proved  themselves  to  be  !  How 
they  prepare  the  eyes  and  the  heart  for  the  sacred  beauty 
and  the  more  sacred  love  which  they  have  revealed  or 
memorialized !  Where  we  now  stand  we  can  see  that 
there  are  two  wings  to  the  marble  mausoleum,  one  of  which 
is  a  mosque,  far  enough  removed  to  appear  only  sacred 
guardians  of  the  holier  shrine.  As  we  walk  about  the 
platform,  we  repeat  with  so  many  before  us,  "  The  work  of 
Titans,"  and  finally,  drawing  closer  to  the  Palace  Crown, 
we  exclaim,  "  The  work  of  jewellers."  No  other  building 
in  the  world  has  such  an  ornamentation  of  precious  stones, 
their  colored  beauties  bringing  out  the  wisdom  of  sacred 
Persian  texts  around  the  majestic  portals,  and  elsewhere 
in  the  spandrels  and  angles  and  screens  and  tombs  within, 
spreading  out  into  an  infinite  wealth  of  scrolls  and  wreaths 
and  arabesques  of  jasmine,  columbine,  poppy,  and  carna- 
tion, filling  our  eyes  and  souls  with  the  joy  and  wonder  of 
seeing  all  most  beautiful  things  here  lavished  in  fadeless 
embroidery.  The  delicate  bas-relief  ornamentation  of 
white  marble  found  everywhere  satisfies  and  delights  the 
lover  of  beautiful  forms.  But  when,  standing  beneath  the 
central  dome  by  the  tombs  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Em- 
peror's wife,  with  the  soft  light  coming  in  only  through  the 
exquisite  screens  of  marble,  one  gazes  in  bewildered  joy  at 
this  wealth  of  jewelled  ornamentation,  with  its  richness  of 
abiding  colors  ;  he  feels  that  art  and  love  and  faith  have 
here  reached  the  climax  of  beautiful  expression.  It  was  the 
light  of  torches  which  revealed  to  us  the  interior  on  our 
first  visit,  when  the  full  moon  was  shining  on  the  dome 
above  ;  but  the  next  morning  the  jewelled  splendors  of  the 
Taj  seemed  lovelier  still  in  the  sunlight.  Side  by  side  in  the 
vault  below,  on  the  level  of  the  ground,  are  the  real  but 
plainer  tombs  of  Shah  Jehan  and  Mumtaz-i-Mahal.  But 
immediately  above  them,  in  the  apartment  which  rises  into 
the  matchless  dome,  are  the  jewelled  sepulchres  surrounded 


383  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

by  the  exquisite  trellis-work,  where  one  lingers  and  lingers, 
loath  to  depart.  And  yet,  as  he  walks  once  more  on  the 
spacious  platform  in  moonlight  or  sunlight,  looking  up  at 
dome  or  slender  sentinel  towers  or  down  upon  the  blue 
sliding  waters  of  the  Jumna,  he  feels  himself  to  be  in  a  world 
of  beauty  not  less  exquisitely  beautiful  than  that  within. 

He  who  has  seen  the  wonders  of  the  world  may  contrast 
the  Taj  Mahal,  especially  after  he  has  gone  away  from  it, 
with  the  florid  gorgeousness  of  St.  Peter's ;  he  may  feel  a 
certain  deeper  intellectual  sympathy  with  the  world  of 
thought  and  emotion  brought  before  him  by  King's  Chapel 
in  Cambridge  and  the  ivy-mantled  towers  of  Oxford ;  he 
may  feel  his  soul  drawn  nearer  to  God  in  mighty  aspiration 
and  in  memory  of  the  world's  Christian  past,  in  the 
columned  aisles  of  the  Cologne  Cathedral ;  and  standing 
amid  the  statues  and  sculptured  flower-garden  on  the  roof 
of  "  many-spired  Milan,"  beholding  the  sunlight  breaking 
through  the  clouds  on  the  snowy  peaks  of  St.  Gothard, 
he  may  have  a  keener  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  man  and 
the  greatness  of  God  ;  but  nowhere  else  so  fully  as  in  the 
Taj  Mahal  have  I  had  such  a  sober  certainty  of  the  wak- 
ing bliss  of  beauty  and  of  human  love  embodied  in  archi- 
tecture. Standing  beneath  the  dome,  Moslem  lips  breathed 
forth  the  name  of  Allah,  and  melodious  echoes,  softening 
and  dying  away,  brought  back  to  our  ears  the  sacred  syl- 
lables. The  Palace  Crown  of  Asia  is  not  out  of  harmony 
with  the  spirit  which  ascribes  all  glory  to  Heaven.  "  Earth 
with  her  ten  thousand  voices  praises  God." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

JEYPORE   TO    MADRAS. 

WE  found  Jeypore,  which  we  reached  after  a  ten  hours' 
ride  from  Agra,  the  most  interesting,  in  certain  re- 
spects at  least,  of  all  Indian  cities.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Mac- 
alister,  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Mission  of  Scotland,  was 
our  courteous  and  delightful  host,  and  he  gave  me  a  day 
of  sight-seeing  unembarrassed  by  lectures.  It  was  early  in 
the  morning  when  we  had  our  first  drive  through  the  high- 
walled  and  rosy  city,  a  town  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
inhabitants,  surrounded  by  rugged  and  fort-crowned  hills, 
and  the  capital  of  a  prosperous  Native  State  with  a  popula- 
tion of  two  and  a  half  millions.  The  Maharajah  who  gov- 
erns this  community  intrusts  nearly  all  the  affairs  of  state 
to  his  prime  minister,  a  very  enlightened  man  who  called 
on  us  in  the  afternoon.  I  found  him  a  person  of  com- 
manding mind  and  liberal  spirit.  He  was  graduated  from 
Duff  College,  Calcutta,  and  although  himself  a  nominal 
Hindu,  he  gladly  owns  his  large  obligations  to  the  Christian 
missionaries.  Fully  one-half  of  the  hour's  conversation 
which  we  had  together  was  devoted  to  Shakespeare,  of 
whom  this  Indian  statesman  has  been  a  profound  student. 

Jeypore  was  to  us  the  greatest  sensation  since  Benares. 
It  is  a  city  of  pink  houses  and  broad  streets  where  ele- 
phants, monkeys,  cows,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  pigeons 
are  equally  at  home.  Such  costumes,  with  more  than  the 
colors  of  the  rainbow,  apparently  devised  by  some  Hindu 
Turner  in  an  hour  of  madness,  I  have  never  seen  elsewhere. 
Here  is  a  city  into  which  European  life  seems  scarcely 
to   have    intruded,  and  which   is  apparently  happier   and 


390 


A    WORLD-PIL  GRIM  A  GE. 


more  prosperous  than  most  Indian  cities.     In  reality,  how- 
ever, Western  civilization  has  done  a  large  work  beneath 
these  Oriental  ways  and  forms,   for  Jeypore  is  lighted  by 
gas,  and  rejoices  in  an  immense   Public  Garden,  laid   out 
by  European  skill ;  in  a  great  college,  which  is  affiliated  with 
the  University  of  Calcutta ;  in  a  hospital ;  a  school  of  art ; 
and  in  an  almost  magnificent  museum,  Albert  Hall,  designed 
and  built  by  Colonel  Jacobs,  the  presiding  genius  and  good 
angel  of  Jeypore.     But  driving  by  the  fantastic  Hall  of  the 
Winds,  or  the  tall  tower  which  overlooks  the  city,  or  wan- 
dering through  the  Maharajah's  palace  and  pleasure-ground 
within  which  his   Highness   employs  and  feeds  ten  thou- 
sand   attendants;    inspecting    and    buying    the    beautiful 
enamel-work  done   in   the  bazaars;  taking  a  peep  at  the 
splendid  tigers,  or  watching  the  horrible  alligators  snatching 
great  pieces  of  meat  in  the  immense  royal  tanks ;  behold- 
ing the  monkeys  scampering  along  the   houses,    or   even 
gazing  at  the  curious  and  colossal  instruments  in  Jey  Sing's 
Astronomical  Observatory;  and  above  all,   looking  at  the 
motley  and    many-colored    procession   of  people,  moving 
along  the  pink  streets,  which  in  color  and   material  appear 
like  the  scenery  of  some  gorgeous  and  fantastic  stage,  —  one 
loses  sight  of  everything  Occidental,  and  says  in  his  heart, 
"This    is   the  East,  the  quintessence   of  all   brilliant   and 
bewildering  Orientalism." 

The  old  capital  and  the  old  palace  are  at  Amber,  five 
miles  from  Jeypore,  picturesquely  situated  at  the  entrance 
of  a  steep  mountain  gorge,  in  the  vicinity  of  a  lovely  lake. 
Every  traveller  is  eager  to  visit  this  now  deserted  city,  in- 
habited only  by  a  few  mendicants  and  many  monkeys. 
We  had  expected  to  ride  an  elephant  up  the  steep  which 
leads  to  the  old  palace  ;  but  a  plague  had  broken  out  in  the 
Maharajah's  stables,  and  seventeen  of  his  elephants  had 
died,  while  the  rest  had  been  sent  into  the  country.  Thus, 
instead  of  a  gigantic  quadruped,  a  "  transport  "  was  sent  to 
carry  us  to  the  empty  but  still  very  impressive  palace,  where 
we  arrived  too  late  to  see,  in  a  small  temple,  the  daily  kill- 


JEYPORE    TO  MADRAS.  39 1 

ing  of  the  goat  as  a  sacrifice  to  Kali.  The  Rajput  artists, 
for  we  are  now  in  Rajputana,  knew  how  to  build  fine 
courts,  audience-chambers,  stairways,  and  to  decorate  pal- 
aces with  glittering  magnificence.  Within  the  great  de- 
serted rooms  we  saw  the  mica  decorations,  inlaid  in  plaster, 
making  thousands  of  tiny  mirrors,  so  that  when  I  waved  my 
arms  I  surpassed  the  thousand-handed  deities  of  the  East. 
Sir  Edwin  Arnold  has  employed  all  the  wealth  of  his  colored 
and  brilliant  words  to  describe  Jeypore  and  Amber ;  and 
although  his  praise  may  be  extravagant,  his  vivid  word- 
pictures  make  no  such  enduring  impression  on  the  mind 
of  the  reader  as  even  a  day's  visit  makes  on  the  memory 
of  the  traveller. 

We  left  Jeypore  early  in  the  evening,  and  arrived  at 
Ajmere  at  the  sleepy  hour  of  two  in  the  morning.  Dr. 
Husband  was  on  the  veranda  of  his  home  to  meet  us,  how- 
ever, and  we  soon  had  a  second  sleep,  from  which  we  rose 
to  a  quiet  and  delightful  Sunday  in  an  ancient  and  beauti- 
ful city.  About  one-third  of  its  population  is  Mussulman 
and  two-thirds  are  Hindu.  The  Moslem  architecture  here 
is  said  to  be  unsurpassed  in  delicacy  and  beauty.  But  my 
day  was  given  to  rest,  except  that  I  lectured  in  the  after- 
noon to  one  of  the  best  audiences  of  non-Christians  that  I 
have  thus  far  met.  Later,  too,  I  preached  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  All  this,  however,  was  consistent  with  the 
ideas  of  a  restful  day  which  I  have  come  to  cherish  in 
India. 

It  is  a  long  ride  from  Ajmere  to  Indore,  —  that  is,  long 
in  time.  The  three  hundred  miles  were  accomplished  in 
twenty  hours  !  The  trains  in  Rajputana  are  deliberate. 
We  reached  Indore  at  about  six  in  the  morning,  and  found 
there,  waiting  to  welcome  us,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Wilkie  and 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Ledingham  of  the  Canadian  Presbyterian 
mission,  two  native  Christians,  several  Brahmos,  and  a  car- 
riage with  men  in  red  and  green  livery,  sent  by  his  Highness 
the  Maharajah  of  Indore.  This  carriage  was  at  our  disposal 
during  the  day,  and  I  felt  that  it  gave  me  an  importance  not 


3Q2  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

altogether  clerical.  After  "  chota  hazri  "  we  drove  with  our 
missionary  friends  through  the  interesting  capital  of  this 
Native  State,  saw  the  Maharajah's  gardens,  visited  a  section 
of  the  town  where  effective  mission  work  is  carried  on  in  a 
"  mahalla,"  or  court  given  up  to  poor  people  who  work  in 
leather,  went  out  into  the  country,  which  is  largely  planted 
with  poppy,  and  gained  a  deal  of  information  from  Mr. 
Wilkie,  who  is  one  of  the  most  energetic  missionaries  I 
ever  have  seen. 

Indore  is  a  centre  of  the  opium  trade  and  a  quantity 
which  sells  here  for  twenty-eight  rupees  sells  in  Bombay  for 
six  hundred  rupees.  The  government  puts  a  fairly  heavy 
tax  on  it !  It  is  generally  believed  that  the  use  of  opium 
as  well  as  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks  is  growing  in  India. 
The  government  has  these  things  in  its  own  hands,  and  is 
pursuing,  as  many  believe,  a  wrong  system.  It  sells  the 
privilege  of  making  and  retailing  intoxicants.  A  privilege 
which  once  cost  only  fifteen  thousand  rupees  in  Indore 
finds  a  buyer  now,  according  to  Mr.  Wilkie,  at  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  rupees.  Is  not  this  of  itself  ample 
evidence  that  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors  is  gaining  ground? 
India,  beyond  most  nations,  has  known  the  destructiveness 
of  war,  the  destructiveness  of  plague,  and  the  destructive- 
ness of  famine.  If,  according  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  intemper- 
ance has  wrought  for  mankind  more  woe  than  war,  pestilence, 
and  famine  combined,  what  damage  will  drunkenness  not 
work  upon  the  physically  weak  races  of  India  if  the  Hindus 
ever  become  a  drunken  people  !  Some  of  these  considera- 
tions Mr.  Caine  has  been  urging  upon  the  government  of 
India  in  his  lectures  during  the  last  winter. 

We  visited  the  girls'  boarding-school  and  the  hospital 
belonging  to  the  Canadian  Presbyterian  Mission,  after  driv- 
ing through  a  lovely  park,  where  I  saw  for  the  first  time  the 
bo-tree,  the  Ficus  Indicus,  under  which  Buddha  received 
his  enlightenment  at  Gaya.  The  Canadian  flag  waved  above 
the  college,  where  in  the  afternoon  I  delivered  my  lecture 
in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  halls  I  have   seen  in   India. 


JEYPORE    TO  MADRAS.  393 

Mr.  Wilkie  was  greatly  pleased  to  bring  together  in  the 
audience  most  of  the  leading  non-Christians  of  the  city. 
Earlier  in  the  afternoon  we  had  a  reception,  given  by  the 
Brahmos,  at  their  mandir,  or  place  of  worship.  I  was  sur- 
prised to  see  some  of  the  Brahmo  ladies  wearing  nose-rings, 
which  are  discarded  by  Christians  in  North  India,  and,  so 
far  as  I  have  seen  elsewhere,  by  Brahmos  also.  Just  before 
the  lecture  we  made  a  call  by  invitation  upon  the  Mahara- 
jah, the  absolute  ruler  of  more  than  a  million  people,  with 
a  military  establishment  of  about  nine  thousand  troops  and 
with  revenues  amounting  to  about  four  million  dollars.  He 
is  a  large  man  physically,  much  too  large  for  his  own  com- 
fort, and  he  received  us  barefooted,  —  a  mark  of  respect. 
He  was  dressed  in  a  long  white  silk  robe,  with  a  white  cap. 
He  sat  in  a  chair,  and  proceeded  to  ask  me  questions 
regarding  America  and  especially  Chicago.  He  had  partic- 
ularly stipulated  that  I  should  not  speak  to  him  of  religion. 
He  was  interested  in  inquiring  about  the  railroad  riots  of 
1895,  which  he  thought  a  symptom  of  great  weakness  in 
our  civilization.  He  was  astonished  to  learn  of  the  wages 
received  by  workmen  of  different  classes  in  America.  He 
inquired  about  Mr.  McKinley's  policy,  and  evidently  was 
surprised  when  I  told  him  that  the  average  wealth  in 
America  was  greater  than  that  in  England,  while  that  in 
England  was  thirty  times  that  in  India.  He  spoke  of 
Canada,  and  when  I  expressed  a  wish  for  continental  union 
in  America,  he  said  :  "  I  hope  that  the  country  will  then 
all  of  it  come  under  the  rule  of  good  Queen  Victoria." 
A  servant  brought  us  betel  leaf  filled  with  spices  and 
covered  with  silver  paper.  This  was  the  signal  for  our 
departure. 

I  have  reserved  for  the  last  the  unique  and  most  inter- 
esting experience  of  the  day.  At  tiffin-time  the  Maharajah 
sent  to  our  temporary  home  a  colossal  elephant,  so  that  we 
might  enjoy  a  ride.  He  was  almost  as  tall  as  Jumbo  and 
thicker  set.  He  had  a  back  on  which  a  Hindu  temple 
easily  could  have  been  carried.     After  photographing  him, 


394  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

we  mounted  him,  four  of  us.  His  elephantine  majesty, 
obedient  to  the  stroke  of  the  driver's  iron  rod,  knelt  down, 
and  we  climbed  by  a  ladder  to  seats  in  the  howdah.  When 
he  rose  to  his  feet,  his  riders  thought  for  a  moment  that  my 
lecture  tour  in  India  was  about  to  end  !  The  tower  seemed 
on  the  point  of  tipping  over.  Things  came  to  rights,  how- 
ever, and  our  lofty  perch  was  pronounced  a  delightful  seat, 
and,  as  the  elephant-puncher  put  in  his  work  behind,  and 
the  great  beast  trotted  down  the  road,  we  regarded  our 
exaltation  and  locomotion  with  princely  self-complacency. 
For  daily  comfort  and  convenience,  however,  give  me,  in 
preference  to  an  Indore  elephant,  an  out-door  donkey. 

The  Reverend  Robert  A.  Hume,  D.D.,  of  Ahmednagar, 
has  made  all  the  arrangements  for  my  India  pilgrimage, 
answering  correspondents,  accepting  or  declining  invita- 
tions, and  furnishing  an  exact  itinerary  down  to  the  minute 
of  our  arrival  and  departure  in  the  case  of  every  city.  He 
is  now  called  "  Major  Pond."  On  leaving  Indore  we 
looked  forward  with  great  pleasure  to  meeting  the  kindly 
Major.  He  had  promised  us  two  days  of  rest  in  his  home. 
We  arrived  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and,  finding  the 
American  mail  awaiting  us,  closed  our  eyes  in  sleep  about 
four.  For  three  successive  mornings  the  Major's  sweet  voice 
awakened  us  at  half-past  six.  I  faithfully  submitted  myself  to 
the  detailed  programme  which  he  had  arranged,  and  in  the 
two  and  a  half  days  of  our  sojourn  in  his  delightful  home, 
under  his  restful  superintendence,  I  made  six  addresses, 
enjoyed  three  receptions,  visited  four  schools,  went  to  a 
native  concert,  made  several  calls,  attended  service  in  a 
village  church  six  miles  away,  there  baptizing  two  native 
converts,  visited  the  famine-relief  works  seven  miles  from 
Ahmednagar,  answered  some  correspondents,  and  received 
many  friendly  visitors.  As  the  heat  had  destroyed  my 
appetite,  I  went  through  these  days  of  rest  on  the  strength 
of  Indian  tea. 

Dr.  Hume  has  one  of  the  most  successful  missions  we  have 
seen  in  India.     He  took  especial  pains  to  have  me  see  all 


JEYPORE    TO   MADRAS.  395 

sides  of  his  work,  and  to  call  on  several  Christian  families 
and  even  at  the  home  of  a  Hindu  Brahman  gentleman. 
This  man,  a  lawyer,  accompanied  us  through  the  different 
rooms  of  his  house.  We  saw  his  shrine,  the  apartments  of 
the  women,  which  we  did  not  enter,  his  store  of  grain  for 
the  year,  the  children's  play-room,  and  his  library,  where  I 
discovered  on  the  walls  three  framed  pictures,  all  exactly 
alike,  of  Charles  Bradlaugh  !  In  this  room  were  several  of 
his  clients ;  and  before  we  separated,  at  Dr.  Hume's  sugges- 
tion and  with  the  Brahman's  kind  permission,  I  led  the  com- 
pany in  prayer,  all  standing.  One  afternoon  while  I  was 
visiting  the  Normal  School  and  the  Industrial  School,  Mrs. 
Barrows  addressed  the  Christian  women  of  the  town,  a  church 
full  of  them.  She  complained  that  although  she  spoke  in 
loud,  clear  tones,  the  women  paid  her  languid  attention, 
compared  with  what  was  given  to  Miss  Emily  Bissell,  her 
interpreter  !  One  morning  we  drove  out  with  several  mis- 
sionaries, one  of  them  on  a  bicycle,  seven  miles  into  the 
country,  to  Hingangaw.  The  Christians  of  the  village,  know- 
ing of  our  approach,  came  out  to  meet  us  with  strange  music 
of  horns  and  native  drums,  escorting  us  to  the  schoolhouse, 
which  is  also  the  village  church.  And  here  I  had  one  of 
the  chief  privileges  of  my  life.  I  was  permitted  to  baptize 
two  young  men,  recent  converts  to  the  gospel.  Never 
before  have  I  been  so  deeply  moved  at  such  a  service.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  he  who  stooped  to  the  lowliness  of  Beth- 
lehem and  Nazareth  was  almost  sensibly  present  in  this  little 
meeting-house,  which  the  dark  hands  of  humble  people  had 
decorated  with  fruits  and  wild  flowers,  out  of  regard  to  one 
of  Christ's  ministers  who  had  come  to  them  from  the  other 
side  of  the  world. 

On  leaving  Ahmednagar,  with  its  Sabbath  quiet  and 
repose,  we  began  our  journey  to  Poona.  The  awful  plague 
not  only  closed  Bombay  to  my  lectures,  but  closed  the 
schools  and  colleges  and  half  the  houses  of  that  fated  city. 
At  Poona  we  were  the  guests  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Small,  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  Mission.     Principal 


396  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Mackichan  of  Wilson  College,  Bombay,  was  also  a  guest  in 
the  same  beautiful  home,  and  I  shall  never  forget  the  stirring 
address  which  he  made  at  the  close  of  my  last  lecture.  The 
full  course  of  my  lectures  was  given  here  instead  of  in 
Bombay,  and,  as  the  intellectual  capital  of  Western  India 
and  as  a  great  centre  of  Brahmanic  influence  and  of  the 
most  intense  Hindu  spirit,  Poona  was  deemed  hardly 
second  even  to  Bombay  in  importance.  It  would  require  a 
whole  chapter  to  give  even  a  meagre  account  of  our  expe- 
riences and  various  doings  in  Poona,  to  speak  of  the  recep- 
tions accorded  by  Hindus,  Brahmos,  missionaries,  and  the 
native  Christian  community;  to  tell •  of  the  Christian 
workers  whom  we  came  to  know,  among  whom  was  Mr. 
Wilder  of  the  Students'  Volunteer  Movement ;  and  to 
describe  a  few  of  the  interesting  natives  who  came  to 
talk  over  their  religious  convictions.  Four  of  my  lectures 
were  given  in  the  theatre  right  in  the  midst  of  the  plague- 
smitten  portion  of  the  city,  for  Poona,  too,  is  suffering 
from  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness  and  smiteth 
also  at  noonday.  In  driving  to  the  theatre  in  the  early 
evening  we  passed  by  the  fires,  burning  disinfectants,  and 
saw  houses  unroofed  where  death  had  been.  Only  a  hand- 
ful of  missionaries  ventured  to  leave  the  cantonment  or 
pleasant  European  quarter  outside  of  the  town,  but  an 
average  of  five  hundred  English-speaking  Hindus  were 
present  at  each  address.  Only  those  who  had  received  a 
ticket  were  admitted,  and  an  earnest  effort  was  made  to 
keep  out  the  "  Young  Poona  "  element,  the  proud  Brahman 
youth  who  have  gained  notoriety  for  their  bitter  opposition 
to  everything  Christian  and  Western,  and  who  made  riotous 
demonstrations  even  at  the  meetings  of  the  Indian  National 
Congress.  At  the  first  lecture  there  was  one  hiss  directed 
against  some  distasteful  Christian  sentiment ;  at  the  second 
lecture  there  were  three  or  four  brief  outbursts  of  disap- 
proval, of  which  I  was  apparently  unconscious,  proceeding 
in  the  rapid  delivery  of  my  lecture  with  a  voice  that  would 
probably  have  been  audible  in  a  cannonade  !     The  hostile 


JEYPORE    TO   MADRAS.  397 

noises  proceeded,  however,  only  from  a  few.  The  body  of 
the  house  was  filled  with  as  grave  and  attentive  a  company  as 
I  ever  addressed.  At  the  third  lecture  Mr.  W.  S.  Caine, 
M.  P.,  presided,  and  was  to  hold  a  Temperance  and 
National  Congress  meeting  in  the  theatre  after  the  close  of 
my  lecture  on  Christian  Theism.  The  room  was  packed 
with  dark-faced,  white-turbaned  hearers,  among  whom 
"  Young  Poona  "  was  not  wanting.  There  was  a  crowd  in 
the  street  yelling  to  get  in  and  anxious  to  have  my  audience 
get  out.  Mr.  Caine  opened  the  meeting  by  recalling  what 
splendid  services  America  had  rendered  to  India,  through 
schools,  colleges,  hospitals,  and  churches.  For  half  an 
hour  my  lecture  proceeded  without  disturbance.  During 
the  second  half-hour  there  were  several  brief  outbursts  of 
dissent,  which  kept  the  speaker  on  his  nerve,  but  which 
were  evidently  distasteful  to  the  good  sense  and  good  feel- 
ing of  the  weightier  part  of  the  audience.  In  the  three 
following  lectures  there  was  no  disturbance  whatever.  The 
local  papers,  even  those  most  bitter  against  Christianity, 
read  lectures  to  "  Young  Poona  "  from  editorial  pulpits  ; 
but  to  me  this  was  one  of  the  amusing  and  much  prized 
experiences,  which  I  should  have  been  sorry  to  have  missed. 
With  this  exception,  and  with  a  single  moment's  hostile 
demonstration  at  my  closing  lecture  in  Bangalore,  Indian 
audiences  have  been  unvaryingly  courteous  and  attentive. 
The  truth  is  that  I  could  have  preached  Christianity  in 
India  in  the  ordinary  way  and  have  excited  no  hostile  feel- 
ing whatever.  But  it  has  been  my  mission  to  speak  of 
Christianity  from  the  standpoint  of  Comparative  Religion. 
This  is  one  of  the  fairest  ways  of  setting  forth  the  claims 
of  the  gospel.  But  if  it  is  done  thoroughly,  no  matter 
with  what  kindness  and  courtesy  of  speech,  the  method 
is  the  most  disturbing  to  Hindu  pride  which  one  can 
use.  I  have  moreover  spoken  to  many  thousands  who 
have  not  been  accustomed  to  hear  an  earnest,  direct 
presentation  of  the  claims  of  Christianity.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  patient  and   attentive    kindness   of  my 


398  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Hindu  audiences  has  been  remarkable  and  admirable. 
Before  leaving  this  subject  I  must  record  an  experience 
which  came  to  the  Reverend  Joseph  Cook  at  the  close  of  his 
lecture  in  Poona.  One  of  the  Cowley  Fathers  (English 
High-Churchmen)  presided.  At  the  close  of  his  address 
Mr.  Cook  asked  if  there  would  be  any  objection  to  all 
uniting  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  chairman  arose  and 
made  decided  objection,  ending  his  ill-chosen  remarks  by 
saying  that  we  had  the  command  of  Christ  Himself,  forbid- 
ding us  to  (fast  pearls  before  swine  !  This  was  like  the 
explosion  of  a  bomb.  Men  sprang  to  their  feet  shouting 
and  gesticulating,  and  the  meeting  closed  chaotically. 

It  was  on  February  ninth  that  we  reached  Bangalore,  a 
beautiful  city  with  a  population  of  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand,  situated  on  a  healthful  plateau  more  than  three 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  The  cantonment  where  the 
English  reside  is  one  of  the  largest  in  India.  Here  is  the 
palace  of  the  famous  Tipu  Sahib.  The  native  quarter  is  one 
of  the  cleanest  that  I  have  seen.  Bangalore  has  fine  Roman 
Catholic  institutions,  a  Wesleyan  college,  good  public  build- 
ings, an  immense  parade-ground,  one  of  the  finest  halls  in 
which  I  have  spoken,  a  Hindu  temple  where  I  heard  some 
really  stirring  music,  and  a  Cosmopolitan  Hindu  club, 
where  I  met  fifty  as  agreeable  and  intelligent  Hindu 
gentlemen  as  I  found  in  India.  In  Bangalore  we  first  saw 
the  serpent  stones,  —  rows  of  slabs  on  which  snakes  are 
carved.  Around  these  women  were  perambulating  and 
making  their  offerings.  My  three  lectures  in  Bangalore 
were  given  in  the  three  different  halls,  so  as  to  accommodate 
the  different  parts  of  the  city,  for  these  Hindu  cities  re- 
semble our  national  capital  in  their  magnificent  distances. 

I  had  a  reception  one  morning  at  the  reading-room  and 
library  of  a  native  gentleman,  who,  with  his  long  beard  and 
bare  feet  and  the  white  ash-marks  of  his  god  on  his  fore- 
head, might  almost  be  taken  for  a  fakir,  but  who  is  one  of 
the  most  intelligent  and  liberal-minded  of  men.  In  his 
library   I    saw  Mr.  Gladstone's    edition   of  the  Works   of 


JEYPORE    TO  MADRAS.  399 

Bishop  Butler,  and,  as  showing  what  contrasts  exist  in  this 
land,  I  may  say  that  attached  to  the  library  is  a  Hindu 
temple  which  our  Christian  feet  were  not  permitted  to  enter. 
Connected  with  the  temple  and  library  was  a  Hindu  orphan- 
age. At  Bangalore  we  were  the  guests  of  the  Reverend  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Vanes  of  the  English  Wesleyan  Mission,  and  we 
met  the  missionaries  of  all  churches  in  a  delightful  recep- 
tion at  the  home  of  the  Reverend  T.  E.  Slater,  of  the  Lon- 
don Mission  Society,  one  of  the  most  scholarly  missionaries 
in  Southern  India. 

From  the  cool  and  beautiful  plateau  we  descended  in  a 
hot  and  restless  journey  to  Vellore,  a  lovely  city  of  the  plain, 
where  we  were  the  guests  of  the  American  missionaries,  the 
Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  I.  Chamberlain  of  the  Reformed 
Church.  In  this,  the  Arcot  Mission,  Dr.  Henry  Martyn 
Scudder,  one  of  a  great  family  of  Indian  missionaries,  toiled 
for  many  years.  It  was  our  privilege,  when  Dr.  Scudder  left 
Plymouth  Church,  Chicago,  for  Japan,  to  give  him  a  farewell 
dinner,  at  which  his  brother  ministers  bestowed  upon  him 
a  gold-headed  cane.  How  I  wish  now  that  I  had  known 
the  Hindu  forms  of  affectionate  greeting  and  farewell  !  In 
that  case  we  should  have  read  to  him  a  gold-printed  address, 
placed  garlands  around  his  neck,  sprinkled  him  with  rose- 
water,  touched  his  hands  with  fragrant  oil,  filled  his  pockets 
with  limes,  and  burnt  incense  sticks  in  his  honor  !  This 
affectionate  ceremonial  would  have  reminded  him  pleasantly 
of  many  scenes  in  far-off  India,  where  his  great  work  still 
lives  after  him.  In  the  Arcot  Mission  the  Scudders  and 
Chamberlains  rule,  and  we  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet 
nine  of  them  among  them  Dr.  Jacob  Chamberlain,  whose 
delightful  book  of  Indian  sketches  has  just  been  issued. 

Vellore  is  certainly  one  of  the  brightest  spots  in  our 
memories  of  India.  A  reception  committee  composed  of 
Hindus,  Mohammedans,  Theosophists,  and  Christians  was 
organized  to  take  charge  of  us,  to  arrange  for  the  lecture,  to 
show  us  the  fort  and  temple  and  city  schools,  and  to  give 
the  lecturer  a  morning  reception  on  the  day  of  his  depart- 


400  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

ure.  My  address  was  given  in  the  American  mission  high- 
school  building.  The  hall  was  crowded  with  what  Mr. 
Chamberlain  reports  to  have  been  "  the  finest  and  most 
intelligent  audience  that  could  probably  have  been  gathered 
in  the  district."  The  chairman  was  the  Moslem  mayor  of 
the  city,  Mr.  Habibollah  Sahib,  and  the  address  of  welcome 
was  read  by  Mr.  N.  R.  Narasimmiah,  B.A.,  B.L.,  the  dis- 
trict judge.  I  had  a  new  impression  of  the  respectful 
courtesy  and  admirable  patience  of  this  Indian  people.  It 
is  my  habit  here  to  put  into  my  lectures  the  full  force  of 
my  deepest  and  most  fervent  convictions.  I  speak  with  the 
absolute  assurance  which  I  feel,  and  I  am  well  aware  that  my 
addresses  put  a  tremendous  strain  on  the  courtesies  of  my 
non-Christian  hearers,  particularly  at  this  time  when  Hindu- 
ism is  undergoing  one  of  those  revivals  through  which  the 
doomed  and  dying  system  spasmodically  passes.  I  am 
continually  telling  my  hearers  that  Christianity  alone  has  in 
it  the  elements  that  fit  it  to  become  a  universal  religion,  and 
that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  alone  is  adequate  to  the  regenera- 
tion of  India.  Hindu  national  pride  often  passionately  pro- 
tests, but  the  Brahman  judge  who  in  Vellore  conducted  us 
through  the  fort  and  elaborately  sculptured  temple  freely 
acknowledged  to  me  the  vast  changes  that  had  come  from 
Christian  influence,  and  confessed  that  Hinduism  must 
purify  itself  by  going  back  to  its  sources  if  it  hoped  to  sur- 
vive. The  caste  system  he  found  a  burden,  and  he  believed 
that  it  was  doomed. 

My  connection  with  an  American  university  led  the  com- 
mittee in  Vellore  to  arrange  for  a  visit  to  the  representative 
educational  institutions  of  the  city.  Accordingly  I  was  first 
received  at  the  missionary  high-school,  where  an  address 
was  presented  on  behalf  of  the  teachers  and  eight  hundred 
pupils,  after  which  I  was  conducted  over  the  school  by  the 
manager  and  head-master.  I  next  visited  the  Hindu  mid- 
dle school,  where  I  was  met  by  the  district  munsiff,  or  circuit 
judge,  the  manager  and  head-master,  and  was  shown  the 
various  classes.    The  founder  of  this  school  was  the  mahunt 


JEYPOKE    TO   MADRAS.  4OI 

who  had  charge  of  one  of  the  greatest  temples  of  Southern 
India.  The  enormous  revenues  of  this  temple  he  misappro- 
priated, and  a  few  years  ago  he  was  tried,  condemned,  and 
imprisoned.  It  was  proved  against  him  that  the  kegs  of 
gold  coin  which  he  exhibited  as  the  treasure  of  the  temple 
were  gold  only  on  the  surface.  Copper  coins  had  been  sub- 
stituted for  the  greater  part  of  the  temple's  wealth. 

Vellore  surpassed  all  other  places  in  floral  welcomes.  Did 
not  Mem  Sahib  photograph  me  decked  in  thirteen  garlands 
and  holding  three  bouquets  in  my  hands?  But  Vellore  is 
hot,  and  my  pleasantest  experiences  there  were  in  a  great 
swimming-tank  built  by  one  of  the  benevolent  Scudders. 
At  half-past  eight  in  the  morning  the  Hindu  Club  gave  me 
a  reception  with  the  usual  printed  address  of  welcome. 
People  here  are  very  fond  of  titles,  and  they  think  it  dis- 
courteous to  omit  any  which  justly  belong  to  a  guest.  Be- 
tween two  banana-trees  was  suspended  a  large  red  banner 
whereon  were  these  words  in  white,  — 

WELCOME  TO   DR.   BARROWS,   M.A. 

The  Mem  Sahib  insisted  that  the  last  two  letters  made  the 
welcome  include  her  ! 

February  thirteenth  we  drove  to  the  junction,  five  miles 
away,  to  take  the  train  for  Madras.  It  was  a  beautiful  drive 
through  a  rice  country,  where  the  green  fields  and  the  many 
sheets  of  water  reminded  us  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and 
where  I  should  not  have  been  surprised  to  see  the  Pyramids 
taking  the  place  of  the  rocky  hills  which  came  frequently 
into  sight.  Southern  India  escaped  the  famine  this  year. 
Its  turn  came  in  1877,  when  millions  were  swept  away. 
The  Reverend  Mr.  Vanes  of  Bangalore  told  us  that  in 
walking  from  his  house  to  the  high-school  he  sometimes 
counted  a  dozen  dead  bodies  by  the  roadside.  But  this 
year  Southern  India  is  a  delight  to  the  eye,  and  our  visit  to 
the  south  land  has  been  in  many  respects  the  most  interest- 
ing part  of  our  long  journey.  The  Moslem  mayor  of  Vel- 
lore was  at  the  station  to  bid  us  good-by ;   and  our  host, 

26 


402  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Mr.  Chamberlain,  accompanied  us  to  Madras,  where  a  large 
committee  of  reception  met  us  at  the  station.  Among  them 
were  Colonel  Olcott,  president  of  the  Theosophical  Society, 
one  of  the  editors  of  "The  Hindu,"  Dr.  Murdoch  of  the 
Christian  Literature  Society,  the  Reverend  Maurice  Phillips, 
who  was  present  at  the  Religious  Congresses  in  Chicago, 
and  several  other  of  the  Christian  missionaries. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

MADRAS   —  THE   MALABAR   COAST   AND   MADURA. 

1\ /T  ADRAS,  a  city  of  five  hundred  thousand  inhabitants, 
capital  of  the  Southern  Presidency,  rises  along  an 
exposed  coast-line  and  is  not  a  favorite  halting-place  for 
tourists.  It  has  no  magnificent  temples  to  attract  the 
visitor,  and  its  heat  is  of  the  muggiest.  But  to  me  it  has 
proved  one  of  the  most  interesting  cities  in  India,  the  cli- 
max of  all  my  long  trip.  From  the  windows  of  the  Chris- 
tian College,  where  we  are  housed,  or  at  least  from  its 
tower,  we  may  look  out  upon  the  artificial  harbor,  protect- 
ing ships  from  the  violence  of  cyclonic  tempests ;  we  may 
look  over  Blacktown  to  the  north,  and  turning  southward 
may  see  Fort  St.  George,  the  beginning  of  England's  em- 
pire in  India.  Just  across  the  way  from  the  college  are  the 
magnificent  Law  Court  buildings,  the  tallest  tower  of  which 
is  used  for  a  lighthouse.  Madras  is  a  series  of  great  villages, 
divided  by  parks,  rivers,  and  railroads.  More  than  two 
miles  from  us  to  the  southward  is  that  part  of  the  city 
called  Triplicane,  where  I  met  some  Hindu  disputants  this 
morning  ;  and  three  miles  farther  is  aristocratic  Adyar,  sacred 
to  theosophy.  Far  away  on  the  southern  horizon  is  Little 
Mount,,  where  a  church  covers  the  supposed  burial-place  of 
St.  Thomas,  the  apostle  to  India.  From  the  college  tower 
we  can  see  also  the  splendid  library  and  museum,  one  of 
the  finest  modern  buildings  in  the  Indian  Empire,  and  also 
the  tall  steeple  of  old  St.  Andrew's  Church.  The  pleasantest 
drive  in  Madras  is  the  Marina,  along  the  surf-beaten  shore, 
where  one  may  see  the  peculiar  boats  of  the  almost  naked 
Madrasis,  some  of  them  nothing  but  a  raft  of  light  logs  bound 


404  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

together  and  propelled  by  a  stout  paddle.  It  was  one  of 
these  unclothed  sailors,  wearing  only  a  yellow  hat,  that  con- 
vulsed Macaulay  with  laughter  when  he  arrived  in  Madras, 
when  he  first  touched  India,  I  believe  in  1832. 

There  is  something  very  strange  in  the  conjunctions  which 
one  continually  meets  with  in  the  East.  In  yonder  harbor 
are  the  steel  cruisers,  the  perfection  of  the  modern  art  of 
navigation ;  and  here  are  the  log  boats  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, or  the  catamarans,  with  their  projecting  outriggers, 
or  the  masulas,  used  in  landing  passengers,  which  are  nothing 
but  open  boats  of  thin  boards  sewed  with  cocoanut  fibre  to 
a  strong  framework.  But  from  our  windows  the  other  morn- 
ing we  saw  something  more  remarkable  still.  It  was  a  pro- 
cession of  half-naked  idolaters  carrying  an  ugly  god  down 
to  bathe.  The  idol  was  in  a  palanquin,  sitting  in  front  of  a 
mirror,  that  he  might  not  lose  sight  of  his  beauty  ;  and  about 
him  were,  perhaps,  one  hundred  of  his  friends  and  worship- 
pers, some  of  them  making  barbaric  music.  This  procession 
crossed  an  electric-car  track,  swept  by  the  Law  Courts, 
and  disturbed  the  studies  of  the  eighteen  hundred  boys 
and  young  men  who  were  in  the  Christian  College.  Hindu 
superstitions  die  hard,  but  they  are  dying.  The  crowds  at 
the  procession  and  bathing  festivals  are  far  smaller  than  they 
were  a  half-century  ago.  English  education  is  undermining 
the  old  beliefs.  There  is  something  hollow,  fantastic,  and 
transient  in  the  popular  outburst  which  last  week  welcomed 
to  Madras  a  Hindu  missionary  just  returned  from  Great 
Britain  and  America. 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  glimpses  which  I  can 
afford  my  readers  will  come  from  a  brief  journal  of  our  hot 
days  in  Madras.  On  Sunday,  February  fourteenth,  we  en- 
deavored to  rest,  until  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  went 
to  a  meeting  of  the  Students'  Volunteer  Conference,  where  we 
heard  an  impressive  address  from  Dr.  Francis  E.  Clark,  whose 
path  here  again  crossed  ours.  At  the  next  hour  I  preached 
in  the  college  church  to  a  company  of  young  men,  who  did 
not  seem  aware  of  the,  to  me,  almost  intolerable  heat.    Two 


MADRAS.  405 

immense  punkas  waved  over  the  audience,  and  a  smaller 
punka  was  kept  vibrating  above  the  preacher's  perspir- 
ing pate.  But  the  temperature  has  been  such  that  I 
shall  always  cherish  an  intense  distaste  for  the  expres- 
sion "  a  warm  welcome."  They  say  of  the  climate  here 
that  for  two  months  it  is  hot  and  the  rest  of  the  year  it 
is  hotter. 

We  are  fortunate  in  living  with  the  Reverend  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  George  Pittendrigh  at  the  Christian  College.  I  am 
occupying  the  spacious  study  of  Dr.  Miller,  the  president 
of  the  college,  one  of  the  great  men  of  Scotland  and  India. 
He  has  been  seriously  sick  in  the  house  of  one  of  the  col- 
lege teachers,  and,  as  an  indication  of  the  love  and  venera- 
tion in  which  he  is  held  by  all  classes  of  the  community,  I 
am  told  that  a  lamp  is  kept  burning  for  him  in  one  of  the 
Hindu  temples.  My  reception  occurred  to-night  in  Victoria 
Hall.  The  platform  was  occupied  by  the  committee  who 
represent  the  various  sections  of  the  Hindu  and  Christian 
community.  The  usual  address  of  welcome  was  read  by  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Kellett  of  the  Wesleyan  Mission,  and  then  I 
was  let  loose  on  the  audience  for  perhaps  thirty-five  minutes. 
After  this  I  was  escorted  through  the  hall  and  had  the  op- 
portunity of  meeting  and  talking  with  many  men  of  many 
minds. 

Tuesday,  February  sixteenth.  —  A  great,  and  for  this  sea- 
son of  the  year  unprecedented,  rain-storm  flooded  Madras 
last  night.  We  breakfasted  in  the  spacious  bungalow  of  the 
Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Maurice  Phillips,  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society.  Then  came  some  shopping  in  the  most 
beautiful  "store"  that  I  have  seen  in  India,  at  which  the 
service  is  so  slow  that  one  melts  away  half  his  existence  be- 
fore the  parcels  are  ready.  My  first  lecture  occurred  to- 
night in  Victoria  Hall.  A  respected  Hindu  judge  presided, 
and  at  the  close  departed  from  the  rules  of  the  lectureship, 
which  forbid  discussion.  In  this  case,  however.  I  was  glad 
of  the  transgression.  It  gave  the  Hindu  portion  of  the 
thronged  and  excited  audience  the  opportunity  of  showing 


406  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

their  feelings,  and  it  gave  the  Christian  auditors  an  oppor- 
tunity of  watching  the  strange  movements  of  a  perplexed 
Hindu  mind.  The  speech  was  touching,  almost  pathetic. 
He  said  that  he  knew  nothing  of  Christianity,  a  confession 
for  which  he  has  been  strongly  criticised,  and  that  he  trusted 
the  Almighty  knew  what  was  the  best  religion  for  each  man's 
soul  and  would  give  him  that. 

I  have  heard  all  sorts  of  odd  speeches  at  the  beginning 
and  the  end  of  my  lectures.  I  could  make  an  amusing  let- 
ter out  of  them,  telling  of  how  one  Oriental  speaker  said, 
"  For  me  to  introduce  the  lecturer  of  the  evening  is  like 
a  mosquito  presenting  an  elephant."  Another  Hindu 
followed  the  lecture  with  remarks  like  these  to  his  fellow- 
Hindus  :  "  You  see  that  Dr.  Barrows  believes  with  his  whole 
heart  in  his  religion.  He  has  presented  his  ideas  in  regard 
to  the  supremacy  and  world-wide  prevalence  of  Christianity 
with  all  the  vigor  of  his  profound  convictions.  Now,  what 
shall  we  Hindus  learn  from  this?  We  should  learn  that  it 
is  our  duty  to  be  just  as  earnest,  sincere,  and  devoted  to  our 
own  religion  as  he  is  to  his  !  " 

February  seventeenth.  —  I  am  compelled  to  have  my 
"  chota  hazri "  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  for  Dr.  Mur- 
doch, who  is  putting  my  lectures  through  the  press  so  that 
a  copy  of  each  may  be  offered  to  the  hearer  immediately 
after  its  delivery,  is  hurrying  us  both  for  "copy"  and  for 
"  proof."  I  worked  hard  till  nine  o'clock,  when  the  Brahmos 
came  with  a  fine  address  and  the  most  beautiful  garland 
that  I  have  seen  in  India.  Work,  visitors,  and  writing 
occupy  the  time  until  we  drive  to  Victoria  Hall  for  the 
lecture.  It  puts  nerve  even  into  a  tired  man  to  face  such 
an  audience,  and  to  feel  that  he  is  not  only  hammering 
away  at  one  of  the  most  obstinate  of  erroneous  systems, 
but  also  is  striving  to  make  apparent  the  glory  of  that  which 
is  perfect  and  final.  When  I  get  back  to  my  rooms,  a  cold 
bath  and  dressing  for  dinner  are  followed  by  the  inevitable 
and  always  delightful  dinner-party,  from  which  we  escape 
by  eleven  o'clock. 


MADRAS.  407 

February  eighteenth.  — This  has  been  a  repetition  of  yes- 
terday in  the  sort  of  work  which  has  been  done,  except  that 
in  place  of  the  usual  lecture  there  occurred  in  Memorial 
Hall  a  reception  by  the  native  Christian  community,  with 
whom  are  many  missionaries  from  the  city  and  vicinity. 
Addresses  of  welcome  were  given  by  Mr.  Theophilus,  the 
President  of  the  community,  and  also  by  the  vice-president, 
a  graduate  of  Cambridge  University  and  Professor  of  Phi- 
losophy in  the  Presidency  College.  Then  I  spoke  for  an 
hour  in  a  hall  which  was  full  of  blazing  lamps  which  made 
the  heat  like  unto  a  furnace.  It  was  refreshing  that  night 
to  meet  at  dinner  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cooling ;  but  I  slipped  away 
from  the  company  early,  and  entered  into  happy  sympathy 
with  the  vast  unclothed  population  of  India.  No  one  who 
has  not  been  in  India  —  I  may  add  in  Madras  —  quite 
appreciates  either  the  delights  of  a  cold  bath  or  the  genius 
of  Sydney  Smith's  remark  about  taking  off  one's  skin 
and  sitting  in  his  bones. 

My  Madras  campaign  ended  nine  days  ago,  with  an 
undiminished  temperature.  The  interested  newspapers 
gave  as  many  columns  a  day  to  the  discussion  of  Christi- 
anity as  to  most  other  topics  put  together.  One  morn- 
ing I  had  a  reception  by  the  Triplicane  Hindu  Club, 
followed  by  a  delightful  breakfast  with  Colonel  Olcott.  One 
afternoon  I  was  garlanded  by  boys  in  the  College.  One 
evening  a  reception  was  given  by  the  Indian  Social  Reform- 
ers. On  Sunday,  February  twenty-first,  I  was  permitted  to 
call  on  President  Miller  of  the  Christian  College,  and  the 
chief  educator  in  South  India,  whose  serious  sickness  has 
been  the  anxiety  of  all  classes  of  the  community.  Later  in 
the  day  I  preached  in  St.  Andrew's  Church.  On  Monday 
evening,  February  twenty-second,  we  dined  with  Mr. 
McConnaughy,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary,  a  fine-spirited 
American,  rejoicing  in  Mr.  Wanamaker's  recent  gift  of 
twenty  thousand  dollars  to  the  new  Madras  Association 
building.  At  this  dinner-party,  where  several  Scudders 
were   among  the   guests,    did   we   not   sing,    beneath   the 


408  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE.     ' 

punka's  cooling  breath,  "America"  and  "The  Battle  Cry 
of  Freedom"?  The  next  was  our  final  day  in  Madras. 
The  heat  and  the  callers  continued ;  the  first  intoler- 
able, the  second  innumerable.  Among  the  kindly  visitors 
were  two  young  Madras  poets,  who  did  me  the  honor 
of  addressing  to  me  an  acrostic  sonnet,  which  is  such  a 
fine  specimen  of  Anglo-Indian  poetry  that  although  this 
gem  of  the  muses  came  into  my  hands  several  years  ago, 
its  freshness  of  thought  and  originality  of  expression  and 
measureless  kindness  of  sentiment  will  be  appreciated  to- 
day. It  is  printed  on  heavy  straw-colored  paper  in  gilt 
letters  with  an  illuminated  border. 

"  Religion  is  life's  great  poesy, 
Emits  she  a  living  soul  into  the  earth  ; 
Virtue,  her  tenderest  daughter,  with  mirth 
Joined  by  duty,  giv'n  ;  this  courtesy 
Heav'n  has  freely  granted,  still  heresy 
Blinded  many.     To  bring  close  by  a  girth 
All  creeds  in  the  universe,  and  give  birth 
Rightly  to  the  doctrines  and  prophecy 
Religions  claim,  is  a  grand  design. 
Oh,  Holy  Doctor !  though  such  a  congress 
Was  held  by  Asok  and  Akbar,  no  sign 
Seems  now  to  remain,  but  yours  much  progress 
Doubtless  make,  so,  may  Lord  His  grace  consign 
Down  to  you,  to  lead  aright  those  transgress." 

The  missionary's  heated  toil  has  its  compensations ! 
Much  of  the  ancient  poetry  of  India  is  not  so  good  as 
this ;  and  if  any  of  my  readers  think  this  English  sonnet 
imperfect  in  expression,  let  them  strive  to  write  equally 
good  verses  in  Tamil. 

After  my  closing  lecture  Colonel  Olcott,  the  founder  and 
President  of  the  Theosophical  Society,  moved,  by  appoint- 
ment of  the  reception  committee,  the  vote  of  thanks.  His 
words  were  hearty  and  generous  ;  but  in  the  middle  of  his 
address  he  turned  aside  to  make  a  strong  attack  on  the 
sins  of  Christendom,  and  particularly  of  the  English  gov- 
ernment in   India.     He    asserted    that    Christianity   could 


MALABAR   COAST  AND  MADURA.  409 

make  little  progress  while  the  British  army  immoralities, 
the  collection  of  revenue  from  the  demoralizing  liquor  and 
opium  traffics,  and  the  taxation  of  starving  peasants  to 
build  Christian  cathedrals  continued.  In  my  closing  re- 
marks I  endeavored  to  take  the  sting  out  of  these  assertions 
by  saying  that  these  and  other  sins  of  Christendom  were 
quite  as  familiar  to  us  as  to  non-Christians.  We  repro- 
bated them,  denounced  them  as  un-Christian,  and  fought 
them  wherever  they  appeared  ;  and  I  reminded  my  hearers 
that  the  most  potent  voice  heard  in  India  during  the  last 
winter,  calling  upon  the  British  government  to  amend  its 
ways,  was  the  voice  of  a  Christian  Englishman,  Mr.  W.  S. 
Caine. 

The  next  morning,  at  four  o'clock,  we  were  among  the 
hills  in  Salem,  rejoicing  in  a  day  of  comparative  cool- 
ness and  quiet.  Some  of  these  smaller  cities  of  India  are 
extremely  beautiful  in  their  broad  shaded  avenues,  mag- 
nificent trees,  and  comfortable  English  homes.  After  one 
lecture  and  two  receptions  in  Salem,  we  left  our  kind  hosts, 
the  Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  Dignum,  of  the  London 
Mission  Society,  and  drove  in  the  early  morning  three  miles 
along  the  banyan-shaded  and  monkey-haunted  road  to  the 
station,  from  which  we  departed  for  Coimbatore.  It  was  a 
restful  railway  journey  through  a  lovely  country.  Rice- 
fields,  cocoanut  palms,  little  lakes,  blue  hills,  now  and  then 
a  hideous  group  of  monstrous  village  gods,  —  such  were 
the  views  given  us  in  our  uneventful  journey.  In  the  even- 
ing we  were  in  Coimbatore,  a  sweet  and  almost  heavenly 
place  in  its  natural  scenery.  The  hills  were  a  benediction 
to  people  tired  of  the  plains.  Our  hosts,  the  Reverend 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brough,  were  Australians,  but  connected  with 
one  of  the  English  missionary  societies.  The  lecture  was 
given  in  the  Hindu  College  hall,  packed  as  only  Hindus  are 
able  and  willing  to  pack  a  public  meeting.  The  Black  Hole 
of  Calcutta  may  not  have  been  intended  for  a  place  of 
torture. 

But  I  will  not  linger  over  Coimbatore,  where  we  should 


410  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

have  been  glad  to  remain  a  week,  but  will  hurry  on  to  an 
account  of  our  visit  to  the  Malabar  coast,  the  shore  where 
the  pepper-tree  grows  and  where  Christians  have  lived, 
flourished,  and  suffered  since  the  fourth,  and  possibly  since 
the  second,  century.  Our  friend  Prince  Nouri  told  us  in 
Cairo  that  he  probably  would  be  elected  this  winter  the 
Patriarch  of  the  Chaldean  or  Syrian  church  of  India.  His 
prophecy  was  realized,  and  on  the  seventh  of  February  this 
youngest  of  all  patriarchs  —  he  is  only  thirty-three  years  of 
age  —  was  crowned  on  his  birthday  in  the  Chaldean  Cathe- 
dral at  Trichur.  He  promised  us  a  great  welcome  from 
the  Chaldean  people  if  we  would  only  turn  aside  to  the 
west  coast.  His  promises  were  amply  fulfilled.  There  is 
no  railway  line  as  yet  to  Trichur.  From  Coimbatore  we 
took  the  train  for  Shoranur,  about  twenty  miles  from  our 
destination.  The  youthful  Prince  and  Patriarch  and 
Father  George,  his  secretary,  welcomed  us  at  the  station. 
A  bullock-cart  received  our  luggage  and  Marutee,  our  "boy." 
We  were  put  into  a  nice  jutka,  a  shaded  and  cushioned 
cart,  drawn  by  a  smart  pony  and  driven  by  a  little  Mala- 
bari,  naked  to  the  waist.  A  similar  vehicle  received  the 
Patriarch  and  Father  George. 

The  twenty- mile  drive  was  over  a  perfect  road,  usually 
shadowed  by  great  trees,  amid  which  we  saw  scores  of 
thatched  huts  and  clustering  villages,  looking  precisely  like 
pictures  that  used  to  appear  in  the  missionary  Sunday- 
school  books  of  our  childhood.  This  day,  for  the  first  time, 
we  saw  the  peasants,  not  wearing  a  protecting  turban,  but 
carrying  flat  palm-leaf  umbrellas  between  them  and  the 
implacable  sun.  At  a  little  Christian  village  five  miles  from 
Trichur  we  visited  a  Syrian  church,  and  were  welcomed 
by  the  priests,  who  gave  us  refreshing  water  from  cocoa- 
nuts.  Hundreds  of  the  friendly  Christian  villagers  swarmed 
curiously  about  us,  their  genuine  kindness  taking  away  the 
discomfort  of  being  stared  at.  We  here  left  our  jutkas,  and 
entered  the  purple-lined  carriage  of  the  Patriarch,  which 
had  been  sent  to  meet  us.     As  we  entered  Trichur,  —  a 


MALABAR   COAST  AND  MADURA.  411 

well-shaded  city  of  seventy  thousand  inhabitants,  nearly 
half  of  whom  are  Christians,  —  crowds  of  young  men  began 
to  gather  about  and  to  follow  the  carriage.  Their  number 
soon  reached  into  hundreds,  and  from  the  bazaars  there  was 
a  constant  succession  of  the  most  kindly  greetings.  The 
men,  boys,  and  children  wore  amulets,  some  of  them  crosses, 
around  their  necks.  "All  of  them  Christians,"  said  the 
Patriarch,  over  and  over  again.  Arriving  at  the  cathedral 
and  patriarchal  palace,  we  found  the  great  courtyard  lavishly 
decorated  with  hundreds  of  streamers  and  with  flowers  and 
foliage.  Over  the  gateway  and  above  the  word  "  Welcome  " 
in  gilt  letters  were  the  English  and  American  flags.  We 
were  received  by  the  bishop  in  a  purple  satin  robe  and  by  the 
attending  priests  and  elders.  A  thousand  people  followed 
us  into  the  courtyard,  to  whom  I  spoke  from  the  balcony. 
Before  this  a  printed  address  of  most  cordial  welcome  from 
the  Chaldean  community  was  read  to  us  inside  the  palace, 
and  I  made  a  somewhat  lengthy  response,  which  was  trans- 
lated into  the  Malayalam  language. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday,  —  our  last  Sunday  in  India. 
In  the  morning  the  Prince  accompanied  us  in  a  drive  to  the 
hospital,  English  residency,  and  the  Maharajah's  palace. 
Trichur  is  in  a  Native  State,  and  appears  very  well  governed. 
It  was  a  great  relief  to  get  away  from  the  painted  foreheads, 
daubed  with  the  marks  of  various  deities,  to  this  Christian 
community,  where  such  sights  are  rare.  At  half-past  nine 
we  attended  high  mass  in  the  cathedral,  conducted  by  the 
bishop,  who  offered  special  prayers  for  America  and  for  us. 
My  name  and  that  of  my  country  were  the  only  words  I 
recognized  in  the  entire  service.  The  Gospels  were  read 
both  in  Malayalam  and  in  the  old  Syriac  version.  We  sat 
with  Prince  Nouri  in  chairs  directly  in  front  of  the  altar. 
The  church  was  crowded  with  clean,  fine-faced,  happy- 
looking  worshippers.  Nearly  all  of  the  men  are  naked  to 
the  waist.  All  the  clothing  that  we  saw  was  pure  white. 
During  most  of  the  day  the  courtyard  was  half  full  of  people 
waiting  to  see  us  come  in  or  go  out. 


412  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

At  half-past  one  o'clock  the  elders  had  an  interview  with 
me,  and  told  the  sad  story  of  the  persecutions  from  which 
they  are  suffering  on  account  of  the  attempts  of  the  Roman 
Church  to  get  possession  through  the  courts  of  the  Syrian 
churches.  They  have  been  compelled  to  spend  many 
thousands  of  rupees  to  defend  their  ancient  rights  and  prop- 
erty. I  am  glad  to  report  that  the  effort  to  take  from  them 
the  Trichur  Cathedral  was  defeated.  When  the  Portuguese 
became  dominant  on  the  western  coast  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  Romish  priests  resolved  to  bring  the  ancient 
Syrian  Church  under  the  papal  yoke.  The  Syrian  bishop 
was  seized  and  sent  to  Portugal,  and  there  tried  by  the  In- 
quisition. The  Syrian  Church  was  oppressed,  and  by  very 
unrighteous  means  papal  authority  established  over  a  part 
of  it.  A  Chaldean  bishop,  on  his  way  to  the  help  of  those 
Syrians  who  resisted  the  Roman  oppression,  was  captured, 
sent  to  Goa,  imprisoned,  and  burned  as  a  heretic  in  1654. 
With  the  advent  of  the  Dutch  and  the  decrease  of  Portu- 
guese power,  the  Syrians  regained  their  freedom  and  some 
of  their  rights.  But  Rome  retained  her  dominion  over  the 
greater  part  of  the  people.  To-day  in  Travancore  and 
Cochin  she  has  more  than  four  hundred  thousand  of  them. 
The  Syrian  Christians  number  two  hundred  thousand.  Some 
of  them  are  decidedly  evangelical,  as  is  the  new  Patriarch. 
The  Syrians  are  not  united,  however,  and  they  have  a  re- 
lentless foe  that  is  striving  through  legal  processes  to  deprive 
them  of  their  ancient  and  precious  inheritance.  The  sym- 
pathies of  liberty-loving  people  the  world  over  are  with  this 
faithful  and  long-suffering  church.  I  am  confident  that 
there  are  many  Roman  Catholics  in  America  who,  if  they 
knew  the  condition  of  things  here,  would  heartily  reprobate 
the  effort  to  accomplish  by  law  in  the  nineteenth  century 
what  the  Inquisition  failed  to  do  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth. 

Everything  was  done  for  our  comfort  at  the  Patriarch's 
residence,  and  in  the  evening  he  read  a  second  address  of 
welcome  from  himself  and  the  bishops,  which  was  Oriental 


MALABAR   COAST  AND  MADURA.  413 

in  its  warmth  and  coloring.  The  good  bishop,  Mar  Augus- 
tinos,  himself  a  Chaldean,  has  been  devoting  his  life  for 
twenty  years,  without  a  vacation,  to  his  diocese.  One  of 
his  best  friends  is  a  beautiful  green  parrot,  which  he  has  had 
for  seven  years,  and  who  talks  to  him,  I  know  not  in  what 
language.  In  the  evening  I  had  a  call  from  a  learned,  fine- 
looking  priest  from  Travancore,  with  whom  and  the  bishop 
Prince  Nouri  and  I  carried  on  a  fraternal  triangular  conver- 
sation. I  spoke  to  Prince  Nouri  in  English,  he  reported 
in  Arabic  to  the  bishop,  who  transmitted  the  message  in 
Chaldean  to  the  priest.  Thus  the  ages  and  the  conti- 
nents were  linked  together.  The  shores  of  Lake  Michigan, 
the  sands  of  Arabia,  and  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates 
drew  near  to  each  other  on  the  coasts  of  India ;  while 
hundreds  of  the  Christians  of  Trichur  looked  up  from  the 
courtyard  to  the  balcony  where  this  strange  conjunction 
occurred  ! 

At  three  o'clock  Sunday  afternoon  I  made  another  long 
address  to  one  thousand  people  in  the  courtyard,  and  later 
I  lectured  to  two  thousand  Christians  and  non-Christians  in 
and  around  the  Hindu  College.  The  Governor  of  Trichur, 
a  Hindu,  presided.  Prince  Nouri  made  an  eloquent  ad- 
dress, and  our  carriage  was  followed  by  many  hundreds,  — 
one  of  the  strangest  sights  that  my  eyes  ever  rested  on.  The 
next  morning  we  regretfully  bade  good-by  to  our  generous- 
hearted  friends.  The  Prince  accompanied  us  five  miles  on 
our  way  to  the  little  village  before  referred  to.  With  tears 
and  Oriental  embraces  separation  took  place.  The  Prince 
returned  in  the  patriarchal  carriage  to  Trichur.  We  entered 
our  jutka,  and  were  driven  to  Shoranur,  saying  to  ourselves 
that  we  had  passed  through  an  experience  strange  and 
new. 

Those  interested  in  Oriental  customs  may  like  to  be  told 
that  on  the  Malabar  coast  we  saw  an  extreme  fashion  in 
ear-rings,  —  a  fashion  with  which  we  became  still  further 
familiar  in  Southern  India.  A  hole  is  made  in  a  girl's  ear, 
which  is  enlarged  by  inserting  bigger  and  bigger  disks  until 


4H 


A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 


the  lobes  often  reach  to  the  shoulders,  and  attached  to 
these  lobes  are  gold  or  silver  ornaments.  I  was  sorry  to 
find  this  barbarous  custom  prevailing  sometimes  in  Christian 
schools,  though  usually  among  older  persons.  It  cannot  last 
long  among  those  trained  as  Christians. 

Our  next  halt  was  in  Madura,  capital  of  one  of  the  old 
Indian    kingdoms,  —  an    interesting    and   splendid  city  of 
nearly  one  hundred   thousand  inhabitants.     En  route  we 
saw  the  historic  rock  and  fort  of  Trichinopoli.     Our  journey 
from  Trichur  occupied  twenty-eight  hours.     Before  reaching 
the  city  of  Madura  we  could  see  the  famous  temple  —  one 
of  the  largest  in  India,  and,  on  the  whole,  the  finest  —  lift- 
ing its  lofty  gopuras  above  the  verdant  plain.     A  large  del- 
egation met  us  on  our  arrival,  among  them  the  Reverend 
J.  P.  Jones,  D.D.,  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  the  American 
Board.     The  garlands  which  Madura  gives  are  not  of  flowers, 
but  of  gold  and  silver  thread,  and  famous  throughout  India. 
We  were  glad  to  have  some  relic  of  this  sort  that  would  not 
fade  on  the  voyage  to  America.     We  were  guests  for  a  part 
of  the  time  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Vaughan,  and  for 
one  of  our  two  nights  at  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Jones's  pleasant  bun- 
galow three  miles  away  at  Pasumalai.     Madura  gave  me  a 
crowded  programme  :  a  reception  and  address  at  the  East 
Gate  Church  ;  two  lectures  in  Hindu  club-houses  ;  a  meeting 
with  the  American  Board  missionaries ;  a  morning  conver- 
sazione, where  I  answered  questions  for  an  hour ;  a  delight- 
ful breakfast  with  Judge  and  Mrs.  Russell,  in  whose  com- 
pound is  the  finest  banyan-tree  that  I  have  seen  in  India,  a 
tree  which  both  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  present  Em- 
peror of  Russia  have  tried  to  climb ;  a  visit  to  Miss  Swift's 
Zenana  training-school  for  Bible  women,  a  very  useful  and 
important  institution,  where  the  Bible  women  who  were  there 
being  trained  kindly  gave  us  limes  and  garlands  ;  a  visit  to 
Miss  Noyes's  girls'  school ;  tea  at  the  picturesque  home  of 
the  British  commissioner,  Mr.  Twig, —  a  peculiar  house,  built 
by  Tirumala,  an  Indian  king,  for  tiger  fights  and  gladiatorial 
shows,  at  the  door  of  which,  as  we  came  out,  the  servants 


< 


MALABAR   COAST  AND  MADURA.  415 

killed  a  green  poisonous  snake  six  feet  long ;  a  visit  to  the 
boys'  school,  theological  seminary,  and  Brahman  hostel  in 
connection  with  the  American  Mission  at  Pasamulai,  and  an 
address  to  the  Christians  of  that  interesting  community. 
After  this  came  two  delightful  days  in  Tinnevelly  among  the 
good  people  of  the  English  Church  Missionary  Society.  Here 
I  gave  my  closing  lectures  in  India  in  a  large  pavilion,  which 
the  native  Christians  had  constructed  for  the  occasion. 
Besides  this  I  addressed  the  students  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary College  and  the  girls  in  the  Sarah  Tucker  College. 
In  this  fine  institution  we  saw  and  heard  some  new  things. 
Here  were  blind  girls  who  read  to  us  from  the  first  chapter  of 
Matthew, — and  sang  to  us  while  one  of  them  played  the  piano. 
Then  we  saw  quite  a  large  number  of  deaf  mutes,  who  deeply 
impressed  us  as  with  faces  and  fingers  they  told  us  the  story 
of  Jesus  down  through  the  flight  into  Egypt.  There  are  a 
hundred  thousand  Protestant  Christians  in  Tinnevelly  dis- 
trict ;  and  how  the  scepticism  which  some  people  feel  in 
regard  to  foreign  missions  would  be  dispelled,  and  how  some 
apostles  of  Hinduism  would  be  enlightened,  should  they  be- 
come familiar  with  the  educational,  charitable,  medical, 
evangelizing,  and  other  work  of  this  noble  and  successful 
mission  !  I  had  a  strange  feeling  of  thankfulness  and  relief 
when,  at  Tinnevelly,  the  last  of  my  lectures  in  India  was 
given.  And  it  seemed  to  me  significant  and  almost  pro- 
phetic of  the  great  Christian  victories  of  the  future,  that, 
while  I  began  my  speaking  in  India  in  Benares,  the  capital  of 
Hinduism,  I  ended  it  in  the  Christian  light  and  hope  per- 
vading this  splendid  mission.  I  was  promised  an  audience 
of  twelve  hundred  native  Christians  if  I  would  stay  over  and 
preach  on  Sunday,  but  I  could  not  well  remain.  Tinne- 
velly is  doubtless  the  "  show  place  "  of  English  missions,  as 
Beirut  is  for  the  Presbyterians,  and  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
are  for  the  American  Board.  It  is  said  that  English  churches 
have  been  told  so  much  of  Tinnevelly  that  they  close  their 
ears  when  the  name  is  mentioned  by  missionary  speakers. 
But  I  have  heard  of  one  who  captured  his  auditors  by  a 


41 6  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

thrilling  account  of  the  work  in  this  district  in  which  he 
mentioned  only  unfamiliar  names,  taking  great  care  never  to 
say  "  Tinnevelly."  We  had  no  more  delightful  hosts  in 
India  than  the  Brahman  Christians,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Shreena- 
vassa,  who  entertained  us  here. 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

CEYLON. 

/^\N  March  sixth  we  bade  good-by  to  our  hosts,  Mr.  and 
^-^  Mrs.  Shreenavassa,  and,  equipped  with  sandwiches 
and  a  big  bottle  of  tea,  entered  the  train  for  Tuticorin. 
This  is  the  jumping-off  place  for  men,  as  it  formerly  was 
for  gods,  who  wish  to  escape  to  Ceylon.  Arriving  there, 
several  kindly  Christian  catechists  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  met  us  with  garlands  and  with 
cordial  words  of  greeting  and  farewell.  The  health  officers 
made  us  no  trouble,  and  we  boarded  the  little  launch  which 
carried  us  seven  miles  out  to  the  "  Katoria,"  the  biggest  and 
best  of  the  British  India  steamers  running  to  Colombo. 
Soon  after  I  went  on  board,  a  young  Indian  connected  with 
the  ship's  service  said  to  me  :  "  You  are,  I  believe,  Dr. 
Barrows.  I  wish  to  thank  you  for  your  services  to  Chris- 
tianity in  dispelling  falsehoods  which  are  being  circulated 
in  Southern  India  to  the  effect  that  England  and  America 
are  being  Hinduized."  I  learned  that  he  was  a  Roman 
Catholic,  and  belonged  to  a  Christian  community  that 
reached  back  more  than  three  hundred  years  to  the  work 
of  Xavier. 

Soon  the  long,  low  coast  of  India  faded  from  our  view, 
and  that  great  land  which  drew  to  it  the  covetous  eye  of 
Alexander  and  where  British  adventurers  founded  an  empire 
greater  and  more  durable  than  Alexander's  —  India,  which 
climbs  from  its  plains  and  plateaus  to  the  loftiest  heights  of 
the  world,  —  India,  the  spoil  of  conquerors  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  poets  and  sages,  the  land  of  sorrow  and  distress  and 
blighting  pestilence,  which  is  to-day  dear  to  the  world's 

27 


41 8  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

pitying  heart,  a  land,  too,  which  is  of  all  lands  the  battle- 
field of  the  world's  religions  —  became  for  us  henceforth  a 
memory,  a  memory  which  gathers  to  itself  a  host  of  kindly 
thoughts  and  courteous  deeds  and  friendly  faces,  many  of 
them  "  dusk  faces  with  white  silken  turbans  wreathed." 
Land  of  sorrow  and  struggle,  of  intellectual  greatness  ;  land 
of  gentle  manners  and  keen  intelligence,  of  undying  hope 
and  unvvithering  national  pride,  —  thou  bearest  on  thy  bosom 
the  ashes  of  Gautama  Buddha,  the  grave  of  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen,  the  peerless  beauty  of  the  Taj  Mahal,  the 
throbbing  hearts  of  millions  who  love  thee  and  who  look  in 
faithful  aspiration  to  God  and  to  a  golden  future  which 
shall  not  fail  thee,  —  farewell,  and  count  us  ever  among  thy 
lovers,  ready  to  serve  thee,  eager  to  befriend  thee,  unable 
to  forget  thee  ! 

At  half-past  eight  o'clock  the  next  morning  we  were  an- 
chored in  the  harbor  of  Colombo.  After  another  medical 
examination  we  and  our  luggage  were  landed  by  means  of 
a  small  boat,  and  without  a  second's  delay  at  the  custom- 
house Mem  Sahib  and  I  were  soon  rolling  in  jinrikishas 
along  the  sea-road  a  mile  away  to  the  Galle  Face  Hotel, 
overlooking  one  of  the  finest  beaches  in  the  world.  The 
cooling  tub,  the  sea-breezes,  which,  if  not  "  spicy,"  were 
fresh  and  healing,  iced  drinks,  and  a  bamboo  couch  helped 
to  mitigate  the  intense  and  overpowering  heat.  The  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Moscrop,  a  Wesleyan  missionary,  called  to  inform 
me  that  my  two  lectures  in  Colombo  were  to  be  on  the  next 
Friday  and  Saturday  evenings.  Therefore  we  had  nearly 
a  week  of  freedom.     I  felt  like  an  escaped  schoolboy. 

"  Now  my  task  is  smoothly  done, 
I  can  fly  or  I  can  run." 

And  the  next  day  we  took  our  flight  from  Colombo  for 
Kandy.  Colombo  itself  is  interesting,  the  chief  city  of  an 
island,  part  of  which  may  have  been  the  original  paradise  of 
man.  Half  the  size  of  the  Empire  State  of  New  York  and 
with  half  its  population;  set  like  a  jewel  in  the  Indian  Sea; 


CEYLON.  419 

luxuriant  in  palm-trees  and  cinnamon  groves ;  covered  with 
tea  and  coffee  plantations  and  with  immense  forests,  through 
which  herds  of  elephants  still  rove ;  rising  into  great  and 
beautiful  mountains  which  lift  one  into  the  regions  of  phys- 
ical comfort,  and  yet  almost  everywhere  covered  with  a 
rank  and  indescribably  vigorous  vegetation  wherein  nature 
displays  not  only  her  stupendous  power  but  also  her  tropic 
violence,  —  Ceylon  affords  so  many  attractions,  so  much  of 
interest,  with  its  great  variety  of  populations,  with  its  pic- 
turesque ruined  cities,  temples,  and  its  unmatched  health- 
resorts  among  the  hills,  that  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  enthu- 
siasm of  traveller  and  poet.  Literally,  every  prospect 
pleases,  and  I  do  not  think  that  man  here  displays  any  con- 
spicuous or  unusual  vileness.  Indeed,  a  few  days  on  the 
island  and  among  its  people  made  me  feel  how  much  supe- 
rior, as  a  civilizing  and  humanizing  force,  is  Buddhism  to 
the  degrading  Hinduism,  which,  fallen  from  its  higher 
ancient  philosophies,  has  perverted  the  life  of  India. 

Colombo,  a  city  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  in- 
habitants, seems  to  be  buried,  most  of  it,  in  vegetation. 
Where  the  sun  is  nearly  vertical,  one  welcomes  any  amount 
of  shade.  The  houses  are  almost  hidden  in  palm  groves. 
A  drive  to  the  cinnamon  gardens  or  Victoria  Park  leads  one 
to  pass  many  a  charming  and  picturesque  bungalow,  and  by 
the  sites  of  several  important  schools,  churches,  and  col- 
leges. The  Portuguese,  Dutch,  and  English  have  had  their 
hands  on  the  rice-fields  and  sugar-canes,  the  feathery  bam- 
boos, nutmegs,  and  breadfruit-trees,  of  this  most  wondrous 
of  tropic  isles.  The  years  of  British  rule  have  brought 
material  prosperity.  Colombo  is  now  a  great  port,  and  really 
the  meeting-place  of  the  North  and  the  South,  the  East 
and  the  West.  Great  French,  English,  German,  Italian,  and 
Austrian  lines  of  steamships  centre  here.  From  Colombo 
you  sail  for  Melbourne  or  Marseilles,  Madagascar,  or  Java, 
Calcutta  or  Shanghai,  Alexandria  or  Yokohama  ;  Aden  or 
Saigon,  Liverpool  or  New  Caledonia,  Trieste  or  Singapore. 

But  we  were  impatient  to  leave  Colombo  for  Kandy,  where 


420  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

we  might  find  coolness  and  quiet  in  the  midst  of  scenes  as 
beautiful  as  the  hand  of  God  ever  created.  "  The  fairest 
view  that  these  eyes  of  mine  ever  rested  on,"  said  General 
Booth,  speaking  of  Kandy.  It  was  a  ride  of  seventy-five 
miles,  —  the  hottest  ride,  for  a  part  of  the  way,  which  we  have 
on  our  record,  —  a  ride  that  carried  us  up  through  pretty 
views  of  forests  and  sloping  tea-fields  and  terraced  rice- 
paddies,  nearly  seventeen  hundred  feet,  to  this  old  cap- 
ital, for  which  the  Cingalese,  Portuguese,  Dutch,  and 
English  have  struggled,  but  sacred  forever  to  the  memory 
of  the  calm  and  peaceful  Buddha,  whose  tooth  consecrates 
the  little  temple  which  rises  on  the  shores  of  a  tiny  lake. 
In  the  Queen's  Hotel  we  made  our  home  for  nearly  four 
days.  To  me  the  most  delightful  experience  of  this  time 
was  an  occasional  spin  in  a  jinrikisha  around  the  palm- 
fringed  and  hill-shaded  lake.  It  is  a  place  for  perfect, 
dreamy  quietness.  Nature  is  not  so  violent  and  gigantic  as 
at  Darjeeling  ;  the  sea  is  not  present  with  its  everlasting  moan 
and  its  terrible  power  of  dragging  the  mind  far,  far  away  to 
"  inhospitable  shores  "  of  thought  and  feeling.  All  seems 
like  a  picture  of  Eden  from  Milton's  fifth  book  of  the 
"  Paradise  Lost."  How  profuse  is  the  bloom  from  the  tops 
of  these  trees,  how  wondrous  the  fruitage  of  these  vari- 
ous palms,  how  friendly  these  hills,  how  homelike  and 
tranquil  these  villas  embowered  in  foliage  !  One  morning, 
lying  in  bed,  I  heard  the  musical  drums  of  the  little  Bud- 
dhist temple  amid  the  trees  by  the  lake.  The  sound  had  a 
strange  effect  on  my  imagination.  It  seemed  an  echo  from 
remote  centuries  recalling  the  cry  of  the  self-exiled  Sid- 
dartha  for  deliverance.  It  seemed  the  voice  of  millions  on 
the  far-off  Asiatic  plains  and  the  northern  Japanese  Isles,  in 
a  bewildered  way  calling  to  prayer.  It  was  another  expres- 
sion of  the  sweet,  sad  music  of  humanity,  stirring  in  the 
heart  humane  and  pitiful  feelings  toward  those  —  and  how 
many  they  are  — 

"  Who,  groping  in  the  darks  of  thought, 
Touch  the  Great  Hand  and  know  it  not." 


CEYLON.  421 

The  morning  after  our  arrival  we  drove  to  the  world- 
famous  royal  botanical  gardens  in  Peradeniya.  It  was  a 
drive  of  four  miles  through  such  displays  of  bright  tropic 
verdure  and  bloom  as  one  may  have  dreamed  of,  but  never 
realized  before.  The  garden  itself  would  have  been  a  per- 
fect home  for  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  blissful  morning  of 
time.  Adam's  Peak,  it  is  well  known,  dominates  the  island 
of  Ceylon.  One  must  come  to  Peradeniya  to  learn  what 
nature  really  can  do  when  sun  and  shower  and  soil  give  her 
the  chance  of  displaying  her  prodigious  force.  The  wealth 
and  beauty  of  the  tropic  world  are  in  that  garden.  Here 
we  saw  the  wondrous  India-rubber  trees,  their  roots  spread- 
ing like  enormous  crocodiles  or  writhing  serpents,  some  of 
them  four  feet  thick.  Here  we  saw  the  taliput  palm,  some- 
times called  the  queen  of  all  palms,  which  in  thirty  years 
pushes  its  white  and  polished  trunk  and  plume  of  dark 
verdure  straight  upward  and  then  blossoms,  shooting  up- 
ward for  forty  feet  a  white  pyramidal  spike,  each  bloom  of 
which  forms  a  nut,  the  seed  of  other  palms.  The  tremen- 
dous effort  of  nature  has  been  too  much  for  the  mother 
tree  and  she  dies.  Here  the  nutmeg  and  clove  trees  flour- 
ish, and  the  ebony  and  mahogany,  the  coffee,  the  vanilla, 
the  camphor,  and  the  cacao,  and  two  hundred  varieties  of 
palm-trees.  Here  is  one  which  can  be  put  to  a  hundred 
uses.  Here  is  the  bread  fruit- tree,  and  near  it  the  trav- 
eller's tree,  which  remind  us  of  "  Swiss  Family  Robinson." 
Here  is  the  sugar-palm  from  which  fortunes  are  made  in 
Southern  India.  Here  are  the  ivory-nut  palm,  and  the 
prickly  palm,  and  the  cabbage  palm,  and  the  date  palm, 
the  toddy  palm,  the  sago  palm,  and  the  cocoanut  palm.  Ac- 
companied by  a  very  intelligent  Cingalese  guide,  we  walk 
through  wondrous  arches  of  foliage,  through  the  orchid  and 
fern  houses,  and  gaze  with  joyful  astonishment  at  riches  of 
color  and  miracles  of  nature's  workmanship,  cheapening 
the  tapestries  and  museums  of  kings. 

How  poor  would   the  world  be  without  such   growths  as 
abound    in  these  gardens  !     The  physician's  art  would  be 


422  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

less  potent  without  the  cinchona  and  cocaine.  The  world 
of  childhood  would  be  impoverished  of  one  of  its  delights 
without  the  cacao,  from  which  chocolate  is  made,  and  the 
world  of  commerce  without  the  nutmeg  and  clove,  the  ma- 
hogany and  ebony,  the  coffee  and  the  pepper,  the  rubber 
and  the  cinnamon.  We  saw  the  Napoleanum  Imperiale, 
whose  blossoms  look  like  a  crown,  and  the  giant  maidenhair, 
big  enough  for  the  tresses  of  Hindu  goddesses,  and  we  saw 
here,  as  we  had  seen  elsewhere,  the  jackfruit-trees,  where 
the  green  clumsy  fruit,  sometimes  weighing  sixty  pounds, 
clings  close  to  the  trunk.  Along  the  beautiful  river  which 
waters  this  garden,  we  saw  clump  after  clump  of  the  giant 
Malacca  bamboos.  These  enormous  thickets  with  their 
close-clustering  stems,  each  as  large  as  a  Western  tree,  shoot 
upward  to  an  enormous  height,  and  well  have  been  likened 
to  a  petrified  botanical  geyser.  Nowhere  else  have  I  been 
so  impressed  with  the  vigor  —  I  may  say  the  violence  and 
venom  —  which  aroused  nature  displays  in  these  portentous 
and  almost  incredible  growths. 

Of  course  I  visited  the  Temple  of  the  Sacred  Tooth  of 
Buddha,  —  not  an  imposing  shrine,  but  the  centre  of  Bud- 
dhist devotion  in  Ceylon,  revered  also  in  China  and  Japan, 
and  rich  in  annual  tributes  from  Burmese,  Siamese,  and 
Cambodian  priestly  and  princely  personages.  The  sacred 
tooth,  brought  to  Ceylon  in  the  fourth  century,  was  taken 
back  to  India  one  thousand  years  later,  but  was  recovered 
and  hidden.  Later,  however,  the  persecuting  Portuguese 
found  it,  and  it  was  burned  by  an  archbishop  in  Goa  on  the 
West  Coast.  The  new  tooth,  which  was  manufactured  of 
ivory,  to  take  its  place,  is  two  inches  long  and  almost  an 
inch  wide,  and  would  find  itself  at  home  in  the  mouth  of 
a  rhinoceros.  When  I  said  to  the  guide  that  the  tooth 
was  too  big  for  a  man,  I  received  this  information  :  "  Our 
religious  books  tell  us  that  Buddha  was  eighteen  feet  high." 
The  beggars  are  thick  at  the  gates  of  this  shrine,  and  a 
red  cloth-covered  plate  is  pushed  before  you  at  almost 
every  turn  within  it.     We   saw  a  Burmese  woman    telling 


CEYLON.  423 

her  beads  in  one  of  the  porches.  The  masses  of  flowers 
before  the  holy  places  were  exquisitely  beautiful.  One  fra- 
grant flower  which  here  takes  the  place  of  the  yellow  mari- 
gold in  India  is  called  the  temple  flower.  The  library  in 
this  Buddhist  shrine  has  a  large  and  valuable  collection  of 
Buddhist  literature.  On  the  outer  walls  of  the  temple  I 
saw  the  hideous  frescos  representing  the  punishments  in- 
flicted in  the  Buddhist  hell,  and  reflected  that  this  religion 
of  pity  and  gentleness  on  earth  surpasses  the  mediaeval 
Christian  theologians  and  poets  in  its  pictures  of  cruel 
material  tortures  for  those  who  rob  a  Buddhist  shrine  or 
steal  from  a  Buddhist  priest,  or  commit  less  heinous  crimes. 

This  morning  we  left  Kandy  with  regret,  but  soon  found 
ourselves  filled  with  delight  over  the  glorious  mountain 
views  which  reward  the  sight  as  the  train  climbs  the  four 
thousand  feet  to  Nawara  Eliya.  It  was  a  beautiful  ascent, 
with  its  glimpses  of  tea  plantations,  waterfalls,  mountain 
vistas,  hedges  of  lantanas  of  many  colors,  and  of  other 
beautiful  blooms,  such  as  we  find  only  in  our  hothouses.  A 
three-mile  drive  from  the  station  brought  us  to  this,  one  of 
the  loveliest  spots  in  all  the  world.  Some  rather  decrepit 
members  of  the  English  aristocracy  are  here,  and  all  the 
sports,  driving,  riding,  bicycling,  tennis,  cricket,  golf — most 
dear  to  the  English  heart  —  may  be  enjoyed  in  the  midst  of 
climate  and  scenery  on  which  experienced  travellers  are 
now  lavishing  the  praises  which  have  been  given  to  Hono- 
lulu, Pasadena,  Cashmere,  the  Riviera,  and  the  New  Zea- 
land Alps,  all  combined  in  one  !  But  alas  !  it  rains  this 
afternoon,  and  our  drive  to  the  botanical  gardens  and 
around  the  Moon  Plains  must  be  given  up,  and  to-mor- 
row night,  in  Colombo,  I  return  to  my  old  habit  of  lectur- 
ing. My  whole  course  of  lectures  was  asked  for  by  the 
Missionary  Conference  of  Colombo,  but  I  gave  only  the 
fifth  and  sixth.  These  were  delivered  in  Wesley  Hall, 
where  I  had  my  first  opportunity  of  addressing  a  large 
number  of  Buddhists. 

The    Indian    Lectureship  takes    its  important    and   per- 


424  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

manent  place  among  the  factors  of  Indian  evangeliza- 
tion. Every  two  years  some  well-equipped  speaker  for 
the  cause  of  Christ  will  go  forth  from  Great  Britain  or 
America  to  reach  tens  of  thousands  of  the  educated  youth 
of  the  Indian  colleges.  Christian  lectureships,  setting 
forth  the  claims  of  Christianity,  to  meet  the  changing 
wants  of  the  modern  mind,  are  found  eminently  useful 
in  the  universities  and  cities  of  Western  Christendom, 
where  men  are  familiar  with  Christian  truth  and  largely  in 
accord  with  Christian  philosophy.  But  in  India  the  case  is 
very  different  and  the  need  much  greater.  The  govern- 
ment colleges,  where  most  of  the  Indian  youth  are  edu- 
cated, are  not  Christian.  Many  of  them  are  decidedly 
anti-Christian,  and  some  of  the  professors  in  them  by  their 
words,  temper,  and  lives,  give  the  false  impression  that 
Western  scholarship  has  little  or  no  sympathy  with  Chris- 
tianity, and  especially  with  the  evangelical  type  of  it  rep- 
resented by  the  missionaries.  I  shall  never  forget  how 
eagerly  some  of  the  native  Christian  teachers  of  Benares 
welcomed  my  lecture  on  "  The  Spiritual  World  of  Shake- 
speare." They  said  :  "  It  will  have  a  good  influence  in 
showing  these  young  men  that  the  greatest  of  poets  was  in 
sympathy  with  Christian  truth."  The  great  majority  of 
our  missionaries  are  overworked  already,  organizing  and 
teaching  schools,  preaching  in  bazaars  and  villages,  attend- 
ing to  the  business  details  of  missions,  making  out  reports, 
settling  accounts,  overseeing  catechists,  busy  with  corre- 
spondence. Some  are  translating  the  Scriptures,  editing 
vernacular  and  English  papers,  visiting  the  sick,  and  pre- 
paring for  long  preaching-tours  in  camps.  Only  a  few, 
comparatively  speaking,  can  find  leisure  to  make  themselves 
specialists  through  a  thorough  knowledge  of  Hindu  philoso- 
phies, or  by  the  preparation  of  elaborate  apologetic  lectures. 
In  the  years  to  come  the  Lectureship  will  give  a  breath  of 
fresh,  strong  inspiration  to  the  toilsome  and  in  some  re- 
spects restricted  lives  of  our  noble  missionaries,  by  bring- 
ing them  into  contact  with  Western  Christian  scholars,  rich 


CEYLON.  425 

with  the  spoils  of  special  investigation  and  afire  with 
heaven-kindled  faith.  And  more  than  this,  the  Lecture- 
ship will  bring  to  eager-minded  Hindu  youth,  who  are 
usually  very  willing  to  listen  to  men  of  eminence  in  whose 
works  or  lives  they  have  been  taught  to  take  interest,  such 
clear,  strong,  wise  statements  of  Christian  truth  as  will  fur- 
nish materials  for  subsequent  thought,  and  help  to  correct 
the  intellectual  attitude  of  the  people  who  have  been 
trained,  as  Sir  Henry  Maine  has  said,  in  "  false  morality, 
false  history,  false  philosophy,  false  science."  For  these 
and  other  reasons  the  Indian  Lectureship  is  far  more 
needed  in  India  than  similar  endowments  are  in  Oxford  or 
New  York. 

Furthermore,  as  the  Hindus  are  pre-eminently  a  reading 
people,  and  as  India  is  the  land  of  cheap  printing,  inex- 
pensive editions  of  the  lectures  may  reach  a  wide  circle 
and  be  a  useful  legacy  for  years  to  come.  Dr.  Murdoch,  of 
Madras,  of  the  Christian  Literature  Society,  is  deemed  by 
everybody  one  of  the  most  influential  Christian  forces  in 
India.  By  him  five  thousand  copies  of  my  lectures  have 
already  been  printed  \  and  it  has  certainly  been  cheering 
to  me  that  several  missionaries  have  ordered  a  hundred  or 
more  copies  for  their  own  special  use.  Besides  all  this,  I 
apprehend  that  the  lecturers  themselves  going  back  to  Great 
Britain  or  America,  will  have  a  useful  mission  in  the  home- 
lands. They  certainly  must  be  very  dull  of  perception  and 
feeling  if  they  cannot  speak  with  more  interest  and  vivid 
personal  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  Christian  missions  and  of 
the  progress  of  Christ's  Kingdom  in  the  Orient.  My  three 
months  in  India,  where  I  became  familiar  with  work  carried 
on  by  the  American  Board,  American  Presbyterians,  Bap- 
tists, and  Methodists,  and  the  Reformed  Church  ;  by  English 
Wesleyans,  the  London  Mission  Society,  English  Baptists, 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  the  Free,  Established,  and 
United  Presbyterian  Churches  of  Scotland,  the  Canadian 
Presbyterians,  and  others  have  strengthened  in  me  several 
convictions,  toward  which  I  had  been  inclined  by  previous 


426  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

study.  I  went  to  India  with  an  open  mind.  No  previous 
opinions,  however,  have  been  changed,  except  in  this,  that 
they  have  been  deepened  during  three  eventful  months  into 
which  were  crowded  experiences  enough  for  many  years. 
Let  me  enumerate  a  few  of  the  convictions  which  I  pro- 
foundly feel. 

Christian  missions  have  all  the  greatness  and  importance 
which  have  ever  been  claimed  for  them.  Christ  is  the  essen- 
tial factor  in  the  regeneration  of  India.  Only  the  Divine 
Christ  as  revealed  in  the  Gospels,  the  incarnate  Son  of  God, 
the  atoning  Redeemer,  the  risen  Conqueror  of  the  grave,  is 
adequate  to  human  needs.  The  missionaries  are  a  faithful, 
devoted,  and  self-sacrificing  body  of  men  and  women,  de- 
serving our  affectionate  support  and  our  full  confidence. 
There  is  among  them  an  unusual  amount  of  willingness  to 
adopt  new  methods  and  to  adapt  themselves  to  changing 
necessities.  The  methods  of  missions  are  not  stereotyped. 
The  results  of  missions  are  great,  various,  and  encouraging. 
Much  more  preparatory  work  must  be  done  before  the 
largest  harvests  are  reaped.  The  educational  work  in 
Christian  colleges  should  have  a  foremost  place  in  our 
confidence  and  in  our  expectations  for  the  future.  The 
chief  men  in  this  Christian  college  work  thoroughly  under- 
stand the  situation  and  are  laying  firm  foundations.  The 
men  who  are  doing  most  to  fill  up  the  gap  which  has  been 
distressingly  wide  between  the  educated  Hindu  and  the 
average  missionary,  are  those  who  have  taken  time  to  be- 
come familiar  with  Hindu  thought,  and  whose  wisdom  and 
love  have  given  them  the  spirit  of  openly  expressed  sym- 
pathy with  the  nobler  aspects  and  elements  of  philosophic 
Hinduism.  The  religion  which  the  educated  Hindu  is  form- 
ing and  adopting  to-day  and  is  vainly  hoping  may  prove  a 
substitute  for  that  Christianity  whose  progress  he  fears,  and 
some  of  whose  representatives  he  does  not  approve,  is  a 
composite  of  Vedic,  Vedantic,  and  Christian  ideas  and  sen- 
timents, which  he  labels  Hinduism.  Very  much  of  village, 
zenana,   and  primary  educational  work   in  India  may  be 


CEYLON.  427 

successfully  carried  on  by  men  and  women  of  consecrated 
spirit  and  loving  "hearts  who  are  not  largely  equipped  with 
the  learning  given  by  a  study  of  comparative  theology. 
But  there  are  many  intending  missionaries  whose  work  in 
India  will  be  much  more  thorough,  wise,  and  acceptable  if 
they  secure  in  advance  that  special  preparation  for  meeting 
the  educated  Hindu  mind  which  Dr.  Ellinwood  and  others 
have  strongly  recommended. 

Ceylon,  as  well  as  India,  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past.  At 
Nuwara  Eliya  last  Friday  morning  the  sun  smiled  again,  and 
the  dawn  was  superb  and  refreshing  after  the  much-needed 
rain.  We  took  a  drive  about  the  lake,  and  gained  a  good 
idea  of  a  region  which  seems  to  fascinate  all  who  come  to 
it.  On  the  breakfast- table  the  flowers  were  those  of  the 
temperate  zone,  —  daisies,  pinks,  geraniums,  coreopsis,  and 
larkspur,  —  and  out  of  doors  the  callas,  fuschia  trees,  and 
eucalyptus  reminded  us  of  California.  The  slide  down  hill 
to  Colombo  took  most  of  the  day,  but  the  temperature  went 
up  as  we  went  down.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  entrancing 
views,  the  refreshment  car,  and  the  interest  of  "  Sir  George 
Tressady,"  the  heat  might  have  disturbed  our  tempers. 
The  Reverend  Mr.  Moscrop  received  us  into  his  comfortable 
bungalow  among  the  slender  cocoanut  palms,  on  the  marge 
of  the  loud-resounding  sea.  Wesley  Hall  was  thronged  on 
that  night  and  the  next.  On  the  first  evening  the  presiding 
officer  was  a  Christian  Cingalese  lawyer,  a  member  of  the 
governor's  council.  The  audience  was  half  Christian,  and 
it  was  quite  a  relief  to  address  so  large  a  proportion  of 
hearers  in  full  sympathy  with  my  words. 

Ceylon  has  a  Christian  population  of  more  than  three 
hundred  thousand,  of  whom  about  fifty-six  thousand  are 
Protestants.  The  Portuguese  and  the  Dutch  used  force  to 
persuade  the  people  of  this  island  to  accept  Christianity. 
Mr.  Moscrop  says  that  "  Ceylon  has  been  christianized  twice 
over,  or,  rather,  ecclesiasticized,  —  a  very  different  thing." 
When  the  coercion  was  removed,  thousands,  of  course,  went 
back  to  Buddhism  and  Hinduism. 


428  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Better  methods  prevail  to-day,  and  Christian  progress  has 
been  genuine  and  hopeful.  Saturday  afternoon  I  was  hon- 
ored by  a  call  from  Sumangala,  the  high-priest  of  Ceylonese 
Buddhism,  a  man  of  great  learning  and  distinction.  In  his 
yellow  silk  robe  and  bare  feet  and  shaven  head  he  preserved 
the  general  characteristics  of  the  Buddhist  monk  as  he  has 
appeared  in  Asiatic  history  for  the  last  twenty-four  centuries. 
But  he  himself  is  a  modern  man,  familiar  with  recent 
thought  and  radiant  with  the  spirit  of  gentleness  and  toler- 
ance. We  had  much  pleasant  talk  of  Dharmapala,  at 
whose  father's  house  we  were  entertained  that  night  at  din- 
ner. In  the  days  of  Portuguese  and  Catholic  ascendency 
European  Christian  names  were  freely  given  and  received 
by  the  people.  Dharmapala's  father  bears  the  name  of 
Don  Carolis.  This  is  his  business  designation,  and  he  is  a 
man  who  has  been  eminently  successful.  It  was  pleasant 
to  meet  in  his  large  and  beautiful  home  his  wife  and  sons 
and  daughters,  some  of  whom  are  familiar  with  the  English 
language. 

Colombo  has  a  warm  place  in  my  recollection,  not 
only  on  account  of  its  beauty  and  the  kindnesses  of  its 
people,  but  also  because  there  I  heard  the  first  sermon  in 
English  to  which  I  have  listened  since  leaving  Cairo.  Yes- 
terday morning  we  made  our  final  arrangements  for  the 
long  voyage  of  twenty-one  days  between  Colombo  and 
Japan.  Our  host  accompanied  us  to  the  ship.  This  was 
not  the  "  Yarra,"  as  we  had  expected.  That  vessel  had 
touched  at  Bombay,  and  had  been  quarantined  at  Marseilles 
and  taken  out  from  her  published  schedule.  Marutee,  our 
"  boy,"  who  had  been  with  us  from  December  fifteenth  to 
March  fifteenth,  left  us  and  our  luggage  on  the  steamer  and 
departed.  Dear  Marutee  !  What  a  solemn,  faithful  boy  he 
was  !  His  age  was  perhaps  fifty.  Strong  and  very  dark,  he 
waited  for  us  like  a  black,  solemn  sentinel  at  the  door  of 
every  carriage,  bungalow,  shop,  and  bedroom.  How  familiar 
he  became  with  our  belongings  !  How  carefully  he  guarded 
us  from  thieves  !     How  many  useful  offices  he  filled  !     He 


CEYLON.  429 

packed  and  unpacked  our  boxes  and  bundles,  bought  our 
tickets,  engaged  our  railway  carriages,  hired  our  coolies, 
acted  as  our  interpreter  (until  in  South  India  he  struck  lan- 
guages which  he  did  not  know),  waked  us  at  night  when 
trains  were  to  be  left  or  changed,  and  waited  on  us  at  table. 
We  never  saw  him  smile,  and  scarcely  ever  saw  him  sit  down. 
We  are  told  that  he  has  spoiled  us  for  travelling  in  other 
lands.  And  all  this  for  his  railway  fare  and  thirty- five 
rupees  a  month.  Provided  with  his  wages,  an  allowance 
for  food,  a  recommendation,  a  photograph  of  "  master," 
which  he  had  asked  for,  and  a  ticket  back  to  Poona,  our  faith- 
ful companion  left  us  to  the  tender  mercies  of  French 
stewards  and  of  the  eternal  sea. 

The  shores  of  Ceylon,  after  a  few  hours,  faded  from  view, 
and  we  dreamed  of  America  and  were  joyful.  A  beautiful 
rainbow  arched  itself  from  the  shore  out  into  the  sea,  and 
our  hearts  welcomed  the  hopeful  sign.  That  for  which  I 
left  church  and  city  and  native  land  has  now  been  done. 
The  faith  and  foresight  of  Mrs.  Haskell  have  been  justified  ; 
and  her  name  is  already  a  household  word,  beloved  and 
revered  throughout  India,  and  to  be  as  familiar  in  the  com- 
ing Christian  history  of  that  land  as  the  name  of  Bishop 
Heber  or  of  Alexander  Duff.  The  lecturers  who  follow 
me  in  the  years  and  generations  to  come  will  have  a  cordial 
greeting  and  find  a  large  field  of  usefulness.  I  am  grateful 
not  only  for  the  opportunities  which  the  India  pilgrimage 
has  afforded,  the  thousand  courtesies  which  have  been  ex- 
tended, but  also  for  the  providential  care  which  through 
heat  and  plague  and  wearing  labors  has  brought  us,  in 
health  and  safety,  to  the  present  hour,  when  my  mind  is 
divided  between  happy  memories  of  "  eldest  Ind "  and 
delightful  anticipations  of  the  young,  fair  land  of  which  we 
so  often  think  and  speak  as  "  God's  country."  The  six 
days'  voyage  on  the  French  steamer  "Yang-tse,"  across  the 
Bay  of  Bengal,  down  the  straits  of  Malacca,  along  the  shore 
of  the  great  island  of  Sumatra,  were  days  of  grateful  rest 
and  happy  memories.     As  we  neared  Singapore,  we  prom- 


430  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

ised  ourselves  never  even  to  think  disrespectfully  of  the  equa- 
tor again.  One  afternoon  we  saw  some  queer-looking  black 
things  floating  off  to  the  south,  and  the  rumor  was  started 
and  soon  gained  currency  that  the  heat  had  finally  told  on 
the  equator  so  that  it  had  melted  and  broken  up  and  we 
saw  its  fragments.  The  men  on  our  ship  were  in  one  re- 
spect like  the  habitants  of  heaven,  —  they  were  clothed  in 
white  !  Shall  I  ever  cease  being  grateful  to  our  hostess  in 
the  Christian  College  of  Madras  who  sent  for  a  tailor  and  for 
my  comfort  had  made  two  cotton  suits  of  exceeding  light- 
ness, costing  two  dollars  and  a  half  apiece,  but  worth  far 
more  than  their  weight  in  gold  ?  We  arrived  at  the  island 
of  Singapore  on  Sunday  morning.  It  is  a  delightful  place 
for  those  who  enjoy  tropic  foliage  and  immeasurable  heat. 
England  of  course  has  stamped  upon  it  the  impress  of  good 
government,  and  fully  appreciates  an  island  which  stands 
warder  at  the  gates  of  the  Pacific  and  Indian  seas.  The 
Chinese,  however,  are  predominant  even  over  the  Malays  in 
Singapore ;  and  they  give  one  the  impression  of  good 
living,  good-nature,  physical  vigor,  and  worldly  prosperity. 
We  had  our  breakfast  Sunday  morning  at  the  Hotel  de 
1'Europe,  and  then  rode  in  jinrikishas  to  a  Presbyterian 
church.  We  found  the  service  had  been  at  half-past 
seven  in  the  morning.  Think  of  that,  O  lazy  Americans  ! 
Then  we  went  to  find  the  Chinese  Methodist  Sunday- 
school,  which  Bishop  Thoburn  told  me  was  the  largest 
Sunday-school  in  Asia.  But  this  meets  on  Fridays  !  Then 
we  went  to  the  Public  Gardens,  and  at  three  o'clock  set 
sail  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  for  China,  Japan,  and  home  ! 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

ON   THE    CHINA    COASTS. 

WE  have  skirted  the  coasts  of  China,  touching  at  Saigon, 
Hong  Kong,  and  Shanghai.  But  we  saw  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Chinese  Empire  and  realized  some  of  the 
extent  of  the  Chinese  industrial  domain  long  before  we 
looked  at  the  rocky  and  iron-bound  and  storm-lashed 
shores  of  the  world's  hugest  nationality.  Was  not  our 
"punka"  pulled  by  a  Chinaman  on  the  way  to  Bombay? 
Did  not  a  Catholic  Chinaman  in  the  Hindu  city  of  Madras 
make  for  me  the  slippers  which  I  now  wear?  Did  we  not 
see  hundreds  of  stout-legged  Chinamen  in  the  streets  of 
Singapore?  And  when  I  arrive  on  the  American  shores 
and  reach  my  own  city  and  go  thence  to  the  Atlantic 
coast,  I  shall  be  conscious  that  the  Chinese  industrial  em- 
pire already  has  nearly  belted  the  globe. 

We  left  Singapore  March  twenty- first  and  arrived  at 
Saigon,  a  thriving  city  in  the  Frenchmen's  China,  on  the 
twenty-third.  We  had  a  rough  sea  nearly  all  of  that  day 
until  we  passed  Cape  St.  James  and  entered  the  Donai  River, 
up  which  we  steamed  forty  miles  through  a  flat  and  rather 
uninteresting  country,  until  we  reached  Saigon,  a  city  of 
which  I  have  the  most  unpleasant  recollections.  Our  cabin 
was  on  the  port  side  of  the  ship,  and  was  jammed  up  against 
the  dock  so  that  our  one  window  was  closed,  and  in  such 
stifling  heat  this  made  life  almost  unbearable,  except  on 
deck.  We  arrived  early  in  the  evening,  and,  engaging  a 
Chinese  cabman,  who  knew  a  little  "  pigeon  English  "  but 
no  French,  we  were  driven  to  five  different  hotels  in  search 
of  a  room  in  which  to  spend  the  night.     Our  search  was 


432  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

vain ;  all  were  full,  and  we  thought  there  must  be  a  presi- 
dential convention  bringing  to  the  city  a  multitude  of  ardent 
patriots.  There  is  no  doubt  that  France  has  got  hold  of 
a  good  piece  of  property  in  the  Orient,  and  a  Frenchman 
whom  I  met  this  morning  in  Kobe  and  who  had  spent 
several  months  in  French  China,  was  very  enthusiastic  in 
his  account  of  the  natural  productions  of  the  country. 

Quite  a  number  of  our  French  fellow-travellers  left  us  at 
Saigon.  There  were  three  of  them  from  whom  we  were  very 
anxious  to  part,  but  they  remained  on  board  our  steamer 
until  we  reached  Hong  Kong  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  March. 
These  were  a  gay  and  brilliant  couple,  with  their  infant 
daughter,  perhaps  three  years  old,  who  was  the  enfant  ter- 
rible of  the  steamer.  I  never  have  seen  elsewhere  a  child 
so  badly  trained.  She  excited  much  pity.  Little  Marie  had 
wine  for  breakfast,  beer  for  luncheon,  wine  for  dinner,  and 
brandy  and  soda  before  going  to  bed  at  ten  o'clock.  Her 
parents  were  whimsical  and  irritable  toward  her,  severe  and 
indulgent  by  turns,  and  the  poor  child  was  worn  out  and 
nervously  upset  all  the  time.  Occasionally  she  acted  like  a 
fiend.  The  story  was  current  that  the  child's  underclothing 
had  not  been  changed  since  she  left  Marseilles.  The  brandy 
and  soda  made  her  sleepy  some  time  toward  midnight,  and 
she  was  laid  upon  her  berth  in  the  clothes  that  she  had  worn 
through  the  day.  At  Saigon  little  Marie  was  dressed  very 
brilliantly  and  taken  by  her  parents  to  see  "  Hamlet  "  in 
French  opera.  Those  who  saw  it  reported  the  performance 
incredibly  bad,  and  this  may  have  had  its  effect  on  the 
sensitive  Parisian  child. 

We  were  thirty-six  hours  at  Saigon,  and  one  night  I  slept 
on  deck  and  tried  to  realize  where  we  were.  Our  environ- 
ment surely  was  strange  and  almost  unbelievable.  Beneath 
us  was  the  ship,  representing  the  scientific  victories  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  —  our  floating,  temporary  home  ;  at  the 
table  we  had  the  luxuries  of  modern  civilization  ;  around 
us  were  people  who  had  come  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  ; 
on  the  shore  began  that  populous  continent  of  Chinese  life 


ON  THE   CHINA    COASTS.  433 

which  stretched  northward  to  Siberia  and  westward  to  Thibet, 
and  in  yonder  theatre  men  and  women  were  enacting  the 
scenes  which  three  centuries  ago  had  haunted  the  mind  of 
an  English  country  tradesman's  son,  whose  present  intel- 
lectual empire  shows  that  he  is  the  poet  of  humanity. 

Besides  two  nights,  we  spent  an  entire  day  at  Saigon,  or, 
rather,  on  board  the  ship,  for  I  had  no  desire  to  leave  the 
vessel  for  anything  that  was  visible  on  the  shore.  The  day- 
was  almost  unbearable,  with  the  hot,  close,  and  stifling  atmos- 
phere. The  passage  in  front  of  our  cabin  door  was  crowded 
with  freight,  with  boxes  of  Benares  opium,  which  the  coolies 
were  landing,  and  with  an  enormous  amount  of  boxed  silver 
coin,  which  the  Chinamen,  carefully  supervised,  were  carry- 
ing ashore.  I  spent  the  day  writing  and  in  watching  the 
queer  boats,  which  made  the  scene  on  the  river  very  odd 
and  lively.  These  boats,  covered  with  matting,  like  long, 
low  market- wagons,  or  like  Noah's  ark,  with  sails  of  matted 
grass,  were  everywhere  and  alive  with  people.  One  of  our 
English  companions,  who  had  lived  thirty  years  in  China, 
affirmed  that  he  never  had  seen  a  fine-looking  Chinese  woman, 
and  certainly  the  features  of  those  whom  we  saw  managing 
the  boats  were  far  from  beautiful.  In  every  country  where 
women  are  set  to  the  tasks  which  in  America  usually  are 
allotted  to  men,  that  fineness  and  beauty  which  we  associate 
with  femininity  is  soon  lost.  We  saw  here,  as  later  at  Hong 
Kong  and  Shanghai,  how  populous  China  has  spilled  over 
into  the  sea.  What  multitudes  live  on  the  water  !  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  families  have  their  homes,  if  such 
they  may  be  called,  in  boats.  Here  the  children  are  born. 
A  woman,  two  hours  after  recording  an  addition  to  her 
family,  will  be  propelling  the  boat  with  the  new-comer 
strapped  upon  her  back.  Sometimes,  it  is  said,  the  chil- 
dren have  bamboo  sticks  tied  to  them,  so  that  when  they 
fall  into  the  water  they  may  be  dragged  out  easily.  But  in 
spite  of  the  animalism,  the  narrowness,  and  the  poverty  of 
such  lives  they  did  not  appeal  to  us  with  the  distress  which 
always    disturbed   us   in  India.      These    Chinese    families 

28 


434  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

seemed  well  fed,  their  faces  and  legs  were  round,  and 
they  had  the  appearance  of  people  who  enjoyed  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  animal  satisfaction. 

We  observed  a  tendency  among  our  English  companions 
to  depreciate  the  efforts  of  missionaries  to  improve  the 
minds  and  morals,  the  ideals  and  condition  of  the  Chinese 
coolies  and  all  the  lower  grades  of  the  vast  Chinese  popula- 
tion. One  of  them  said  to  me,  "  You  might  as  well  attempt 
•to  Christianize  rats  or  rabbits."  No  more  heathenish  and 
abominable  sentiment  than  this,  so  unworthy  of  the  better 
England,  ever  was  uttered  in  my  hearing.  Precisely  such 
talk  greeted  the  early  Christian  apostles  and  preachers  who 
found  their  first  converts  among  the  coolies  and  slaves  of 
Antioch,  Ephesus,  of  Corinth,  and  Rome ;  and  certainly 
such  talk  is  contradicted  by  the  facts,  with  which,  however, 
some  English  merchants  living  long  in  China  appear  to  be 
quite  unfamiliar  ! 

We  were  not  sorry  to  bid  adieu  to  Saigon ;  and  as  our 
ship  left  the  Donai  River  and  turned  her  prow  northward, 
we  began  after  a  few  hours  to  realize  the  possibility  of  an 
ultimate  escape  from  tropic  heat.  On  the  twenty-sixth  of 
March  it  had  become  considerably  cooler,  almost  comfort- 
able, and  I  found  myself  in  a  condition  to  do  a  large  amount 
of  literary  work.  I  shall  associate  a  good  many  of  the  books 
and  pamphlets  on  Hinduism  which  came  into  my  posses- 
sion in  India  with  this  voyage  on  the  China  Sea.  I  have 
come  to  realize  what  an  immense  and  permanent  factor  in 
human  civilization  climate  is.  The  advent  of  cooler  weather 
produced  a  great  change  in  the  appearance  of  our  company 
of  travellers.  The  white  garments  disappeared  ;  overcoats 
and  even  sealskin  cloaks  came  to  light ;  everywhere  there 
were  attempts  at  exercise  on  the  part  of  the  passengers, 
and  even  the  flirting  which  a  beautiful  English  lady  was 
carrying  on  with  one  of  the  French  officers  seemed  to  take 
on  new  activity  as  we  approached  Hong  Kong. 

We  heard  the  fog-horn  more  or  less  during  the  night  of 
March  twenty-seventh,  and  we  awoke  the  next  day  to  find 


ON  THE   CHINA    COASTS.  435 

ourselves  stock-still  in  a  heavy  fog.  Cannon  were  fired  sev- 
eral times  to  discover  if  echoes  could  be  heard  from  a 
famous  and  dangerous  rock  thereabouts.  During  the  middle 
of  the  day  the  fog  lifted  for  several  hours,  and  we  slowly  pro- 
ceeded, catching  views  of  hilly  islands  to  our  right  and  of 
a  dimly  mountainous  coast  to  our  left.  Besides  we  saw 
innumerable  junks  with  sails  of  matting.  I  found  amuse- 
ment during  the  day  in  reading  Kipling's  "  Seven  Seas"  and 
in  dictating  letters;  but,  oh,  how  cold  it  was,  and  how  the 
fog  chilled  the  bodies  that  had  been  bathed  so  long  in 
tropic  steam  !  It  was  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  when 
Hong  Kong  was  reached,  but  there  was  no  landing  till  the 
morrow.  It  looked  very  beautiful  in  the  night-time,  with 
the  harbor  full  of  lantern-lighted  boats  and  the  town  running 
up  the  hillside,  gleaming  with  thousands  of  gas-jets.  In 
the  morning  it  was  more  beautiful  still,  and  the  lofty  island 
rose  from  its  sheltered  harbor,  full  of  other  and  smaller 
islands,  looking  like  a  strong  sentinel  guarding  one  of  the 
chief  rivers  of  China.  Yes,  seven  hours  up  the  river  is  the 
great  city  of  Canton,  and  here  at  the  mouth  of  it  England 
holds  what  has  become  the  fourth  port  of  the  world. 

Some  of  our  English  friends  invited  us  to  use  their  launch 
in  landing,  and  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  set  foot  in 
the  city  of  Victoria,  —  for  such  is  its  name,  though  you  may 
never  have  known  it  before.  We  were  soon  inside  the 
magnificent  Hong  Kong  and  Shanghai  Bank,  devouring 
letters  which  had  been  sent  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to 
meet  us  there.  After  an  hour  in  this  most  delightful  of 
occupations,  we  were  carried  in  sedan  chairs  by  stout  coolies 
to  the  tramway  which  climbs  the  steep  island  of  Hong  Kong. 
The  view  from  the  summit  of  Victoria  Peak  is  most  interest- 
ing, and  I  realized  for  the  first  time  that  the  shore  of  China 
is  grimly  rocky  and  inhospitable.  But  I  had  all  the  while 
the  feeling  that  something  immense  lay  beyond,  something 
portentous,  —  indeed,  one  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  future 
life  of  humanity.  Beneath  us  was  the  blue  harbor,  filled 
with    shipping,    and    the   town,  well  built   and  prosperous. 


436  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Azaleas,  violets,  and  many  strange  wild-flowers  covered  the 
side  of  the  lofty  hill ;  and  nature  presented  a  lovely  aspect, 
quite  in  contrast  with  the  history  of  war,  plunder,  plague,  and 
conquest  which  I  might  write  out  in  connection  with  the 
story  of  Hong  Kong. 

Great  Britain  bears  a  heavy  responsibility  in  having 
forced  the  opium  traffic  into  China,  and  more  than  one 
writer  has  pointed  out  the  contrast  between  the  English 
opium  policy  and  her  noble  antislavery  legislation.  It  is 
not  true,  however,  that  England  entered  upon  the  opium 
war  simply  in  order  to  force  the  Chinese  to  provide  a  mar- 
ket for  the  produce  of  the  poppy  fields  of  India.  As  Dr. 
W.  A.  P.  Martin  has  pointed  out  in  his  fascinating  volume, 
"A  Cycle  of  Cathay,"  there  were  many  grievances  of  long 
standing  which  occasioned  the  opium  war.  One  of  these 
was  a  proclamation  issued  every  year  by  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernment, accusing  foreigners  of  horrible  crimes.  Another 
still  was  the  Chinese  habit  of  compelling  the  British  ambas- 
sador to  do  homage  to  the  Emperor,  with  the  implication 
that  England  was  a  vassal  of  China.  It  is  a  pity  that  Great 
Britain,  when  war  was  ended  in  1842,  in  the  opening  to 
British  trade  of  the  five  ports  of  Canton,  Amoy,  Fuchow, 
Ningpo,  and  Shanghai,  did  not  have  the  moral  courage  and 
the  Christian  benevolence  to  insert  into  the  treaty  a  clause 
prohibiting  the  destructive  traffic  which  is  working  such  ruin 
to-day  in  China,  and  which  thus  is  associated  with  the 
policy  and  the  good  name  of  a  so-called  Christian  nation. 

What  a  checkered  spectacle  of  crime  and  glory  England's 
Asiatic  policy  has  been  !  Gaining  possession  of  the  barren 
mountain  island  of  Hong  Kong,  England  has  transformed 
this  area  of  twenty-nine  square  miles  into  one  of  the  most 
picturesque  and  beautiful  places  in  the  world.  Destructive 
typhoons  and  conflagrations,  plagues,  and  wars  have  stood  in 
the  way  of  immense  and  uninterrupted  prosperity ;  but  still 
Hong  Kong  is  a  leading  port  of  Asia,  and  Victoria  has  a 
population  of  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  souls. 
When  Dr.  Martin  arrived  here  in  1850,  it  was  after  a  voyage 


ON  THE   CHINA    COASTS.  437 

of  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  days  from  Boston.  It  gives 
one  an  idea  of  the  strength  of  the  missionary  impulse  and 
motive  which  carried  men  from  America  to  this  inhospitable 
coast  to  remember  such  a  fact  as  this.  In  1S50,  he  informs 
us,  the  rate  of  passage  on  the  steamer  from  Hong  Kong 
to  Shanghai  was  two  hundred  dollars  in  gold.  We  did  not 
take  the  time  from  our  few  hours  in  Hong  Kong  to  visit  the 
friends  and  correspondents  with  whom  for  years  I  have 
associated  the  name  of  the  English  island,  greatly  as  we 
should  have  been  delighted  to  meet  them.  The  Christian 
missionaries  and  teachers  who  are  at  work  in  the  great 
Chinese  cities  are  doing  something  at  least  to  overcome  the 
hostility  felt  by  the  Chinese  to  all  foreigners.  I  do  not 
mean  that  they  are  changing  the  Chinese  policy  of  exclusion, 
but  they  are  reaching  individuals  and  showing  that  pure  self- 
ishness is  not  the  universal  mark  of  Western  civilization. 

As  one  walks  through  the  streets  of  Hong  Kong,  thronged, 
prosperous-looking,  and  adorned  with  substantial  and  even 
splendid  buildings,  he  finds  it  difficult  to  believe  that  this 
island  formerly  was  the  chief  emporium  of  the  infamous 
cooly  traffic,  the  Asiatic  slave-trade,  by  which  nearly  five 
hundred  thousand  Chinese  laborers  lost  their  liberty  and 
were  carried  off  to  Peru  or  Cuba,  enduring  horrors  in  the 
voyage  over  the  Pacific  almost  equal  to  those  of  the  Atlantic 
middle  passage.  Sometimes,  however,  the  coolies  rose 
against  their  masters,  and  burned  the  ship  after  butchering 
the  crew.  George  F.  Seward  relates  the  story  of  the 
American  ship  "  Waverley,"  which,  laden  with  coolies, 
entered  the  port  of  Manila.  Some  of  the  Chinese  asked  to 
go  ashore,  and  a  dispute  followed  in  which  one  Chinaman 
was  shot  and  the  rest  were  forced  below  and  the  hatches 
battened  down.  "These  were  not  opened  till  the  next 
morning,  when  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  coolies  were 
found  dead."  In  an  outbreak  on  an  Italian  ship  the  coolies 
were  driven  below  in  the  same  manner,  but,  unwilling  to 
perish  by  suffocation,  they  set  fire  to  the  vessel.  The  crew 
escaped,  but  the  ship,  with  her  cargo  of  human  beings,  was 


438  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

consumed.  An  English  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Hong  Kong  declared,  in  187 1,  that  within  a  short  period 
six  or  seven  ships,  carrying  about  three  thousand  coolies, 
had  been  burned  or  otherwise  destroyed.  In  enumerating 
the  improvements  which  have  marked  the  Victorian  era, 
the  historian  will  not  forget  to  record  the  disappearance  of 
this  Asiatic  slave-trade. 

Hong  Kong  appeared  to  me  one  of  the  most  delightful 
places  that  I  ever  have  seen,  whether  viewed  from  the  top 
of  Victoria  Peak  or  from  the  prosperous  streets  below.  I 
am  aware  that  in  the  summer-time  the  heat  and  moisture 
make  the  climate  almost  unendurable.  Henry  Norman 
informs  us  that  one  of  the  chief  summer  problems  of  the 
city  is  to  determine  whether  the  mushrooms  which  grow 
on  your  boots  during  the  night  are  edible  or  not.  It  is 
said  that  when  the  booksellers  receive  a  case  of  books  the 
first  thing  they  do  is  to  varnish  them  all  over  "  with  a 
damp-resisting  composition  containing  corrosive  sublimate  ; 
otherwise  the  cockroaches  would  eat  them  before  they  had 
time  to  grow  mouldy."  But  these  reports  I  must  take  on 
faith.  We  found  the  city  delightful,  the  shops  interesting, 
and  the  evidences  of  England's  success  in  giving  a  civilized 
appearance  even  to  a  Chinese  city  overwhelming. 

It  is  said,  however,  that  Hong  Kong  is  a  paradise  of 
criminals  from  the  neighboring  provinces.  They  take 
refuge  in  the  British  city  and  then  commit  petty  offences 
in  order  to  be  imprisoned  for  a  few  months,  and  thus  to 
escape  from  arrest  and  torture  at  the  hands  of  the  Chinese 
officials.  However  one  may  grumble  at  some  of  the  devel- 
opments of  British  civilization  in  the  Orient,  his  grumblings 
are  apt  to  come  to  an  end  when  he  begins  to  discover  the 
amenities  of  Chinese  justice. 

We  were  rowed  out  to  the  steamer,  the  "  Yang-tse,"  by  a 
celestial  family  whose  home  was  the  boat.  Three  or  four 
fat  boys  were  stowed  in  behind  us,  the  father  steered,  and 
the  mother  and  one  of  the  older  boys  tugged  at  the  oars. 
Gathered   about    the  "Yang-tse"   was  a  whole   flotilla  of 


ON  THE   CHINA    COASTS.  439 

Chinese  junks,  and  from  the  deck  of  our  steamer  we  could 
watch  the  life  of  the  Chinese  household  afloat.  One  never 
tires  of  admiring  the  skill  with  which  the  chopsticks  are 
used  by  young  and  old,  and  no  one  could  help  rejoicing 
that  the  supply  of  rice  seemed  adequate  even  for  Chinese 
appetites.  Chinese  idols  are  apt  to  be  fat,  and  thus  they 
reflect  the  Chinese  idea  of  happiness. 

On  the  afternoon  of  March  twenty-ninth  we  sailed  away 
for  Shanghai.  Some  of  our  companions  had  gone  up  the 
river  to  Macao  and  Canton,  but  time  would  not  permit  us  to 
halt,  and  we  knew  that  at  Shanghai  we  could  see  one  Chinese 
city  •  and  in  such  a  case  as  this  one  is  enough.  After  three 
days  of  strong  wind,  rough  sea,  and  colder  weather,  we 
awoke  on  the  first  of  April  to  find  ourselves  in  the  Yang- 
tse  River,  a  veritable  Amazon,  giving  access  to  the  homes 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  million  people.  The 
shores  on  either  side  were  invisible.  The  St.  Lawrence  is 
the  only  stream  which  I  have  ever  seen  that  appeared  to 
me  to  have  any  such  volume  of  waters.  Up  the  yellow, 
rough,  and  apparently  shoreless  tide  we  steamed  until  land 
at  last  came  in  sight.  About  twelve  miles  from  Shanghai 
our  steamer  stopped  and  we  went  aboard  the  launch 
"  Whangpoo  "  for  a  two  hours'  ride  to  one  of  the  most 
important  of  Asiatic  cities.  Innumerable  boats  and  ships 
with  eyes  painted  on  the  prow  met  us  in  this  ride.  Cotton- 
factories,  oil-tanks,  petty  Chinese  gunboats  were  passed, 
and  about  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  touched  the  wharf. 
Soon  two  jinrikishas  whirled  us  along  the  Bund  to  the 
Astor  House,  the  best  hotel  in  the  city,  bearing  an  Ameri- 
can name  because  it  and  a  great  deal  of  property  near  it 
used  to  belong  to  an  American  named  Astor.  The  Euro- 
pean part  of  the  city  is  fine,  large,  handsome,  well  built,  and 
full  of  prosperous  people.  I  ordered  a  fire  for  our  room, 
and,  denying  myself  the  pleasure  of  attending  a  Christian 
Endeavor  meeting  and  of  visiting  a  number  of  Christian 
friends,  I  sat  down  to  read  the  American  newspapers  and 
to  smile  over  the  European  cables  announcing  that  "  a  col- 


440  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

lective  note  from  the  powers  was  being  prepared,"  and  that 
"  the  Sultan  was  meditating  new  reforms."  And  so  that 
farce  still  continues  !  When  will  Europe  be  ashamed  of 
itself? 

We  had  an  early  breakfast  the  next  morning,  and,  taking 
two  jinrikishas,  we  started  out  to  explore  Shanghai,  where 
the  European  part,  with  its  tall  buildings  of  brick  and  stone 
and  its  bright  clean  street,  would  look  well  in  any  country. 
We  determined,  however,  to  have  a  glimpse  of  the  Chinese 
city,  even  though  we  neglected  a  visit  to  a  famous  porcelain 
tower,  and,  leaving  our  jinrikishas  at  the  gate,  we  went 
boldly  in.  As  we  could  find  no  guide,  we  plunged  forward 
alone.  Hideous,  whining  beggars  sat  on  the  slimy  stones 
just  across  the  sluggishly  flowing  sewer  which  separates 
civilization  from  Confucianism.  The  narrow  streets  were 
bordered  by  shops,  were  thickly  covered  with  liquid  filth, 
crowded  with  people  and  heaped  high  with  garbage.  Men 
were  carrying  through  the  streets  buckets  of  filth,  and 
many  of  the  sights  were  as  indescribable  as  the  general 
smell  was  intolerable.  Twenty  minutes  in  the  native  part 
of  Shanghai  would  be  sufficient  to  remove  from  the  minds 
of  some  of  our  Western  eulogists  of  Chinese  civilization  all 
the  glamour  which  now  deceives  them.  In  all  my  experi- 
ences in  the  Orient  I  have  seen  nothing,  unless  it  be  the 
shores  of  the  Ganges  at  Benares,  so  unspeakably  shocking 
and  horrible  as  the  native  quarter  of  this  great  Chinese 
city.  How  any  Chinaman  can  retain  his  prejudice  against 
"  foreign  devils  "  after  passing  out  of  the  native  city  into 
the  European  quarters,  is  one  of  the  obscurest  of  mysteries. 
It  is  like  going  from  an  inferno  of  filth  to  a  paradise  of 
cleanliness  and  beauty.  But  the  Chinaman  has  no  aver- 
sion to  filth  and  bad  smells.  He  finds  them  compatible 
with  health  and  physical  vigor.  His  constitution  has  been 
accustomed  to  the  microbes  that  flourish  in  the  midst  of 
these  vile  surroundings,  and  he  endures  with  complacency 
what  would  drive  an  American  mad.  Friends  have  assured 
me,  however,   that    the    native    quarters    of  Shanghai   are 


ON  THE   CHINA    COASTS.  44 1 

sweet  and  beautiful  compared  with  some  parts  of  Pekin ; 
but  this  is  a  traveller's  tale  which  I  will  not  believe. 

More  grateful  than  ever  before  for  the  external  decencies 
of  civilization,  we  left  the  undiluted  vileness  of  native  Chi- 
nese  life   for  the  better  part  of  Shanghai,  into  which  the 
Western  world  has  introduced  cleanliness  and  physical  com- 
fort.    After  visiting  a  big,  gorgeous,  dirty  tea-house,  given 
up  in  part  to  the  use  of  opium,  and  making  the  usual  inroad 
upon  a  photograph-shop,  we  got  aboard  the  "  Whangpoo," 
and  at  half-past  ten  steamed  back  for  the  "Yang-tse,"  and 
by  noon  were  sliding  down  the  tawny  stream,  as  big  as  the 
ocean.     We   had   no   strong  desire  to  see  more  of  China. 
The  whole  of  the  next  day  our  ship  rolled  and  tossed  on  a 
rough  sea,  but,  with  chairs  well  placed  on  deck,  we  sat  out 
from  breakfast  till  luncheon,  tucked  up  with  rugs  and  our 
heaviest  winter  things,  having  the  deck  to  ourselves  so  far 
as  sitters  were  concerned,  for  all  who  came  out  promenaded 
briskly  in  order  to  keep  warm.     On  the   day  following  we 
were  in  the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan,  which  General  Grant  re- 
garded as  the  most  beautiful  sight  in  all  his  trip  around  the 
world.     Mountains  and  wooded  islands  and  a  sapphire  ex- 
panse of  placid  water, —  Japan  was  before  us,  the  land  of 
beauty  and   of  progress.     But   our  minds  lingered  in  that 
prodigious  Chinese  world   out   of  which  we   had  escaped. 
However  loathsome  some  of  the  external   features   of  Chi- 
nese life,  our  few  days  of  observation  strengthened  the  con- 
viction that  here  was  a  people  having  the  physical  basis  of 
a  mighty  nationality.     They  are  the  great  colonizers  of  the 
East ;  they  are  flocking  into  Polynesia ;  they  are  able  to 
redeem  the  great  tropical  islands  of  Borneo  and  Sumatra, 
but  in  their  own  ancestral   home   they  occupy  a  land   per- 
haps the  most  resourceful  of  any  excepting  our  own  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.     "The  dragon  sleeps,"  say  the  Chinese, 
when  men  speak  of  China's  recent  defeat  by  Japan.     True, 
and  the  dragon  is  a  long  time  in  waking ;  but  when  China 
does  rouse  herself,  according  to  Napoleon's  sagacious  proph- 
ecy, she  will  change  the  face  of  the  globe. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

JAPAN    AND    THE    JAPANESE. 

"\  ~K  7E  had  in  Japan  nineteen  days  of  pleasant  activity. 
*  v  Landing  in  Kobe  on  the  fifth  of  April,  we  sailed 
from  Yokohama  on  the  twenty- fourth.  If  I  do  not  write  as 
enthusiastically  of  Japan  as  most  travellers,  it  will  be  partly 
because  I  was  too  busy  with  my  lectures  to  see  it  thor- 
oughly and  sympathetically,  and  partly  because,  engaged 
in  delivering  these  Christian  addresses  and  constantly 
meeting  with  Christian  people,  I  was  testing  Japan  by 
standards  somewhat  higher  than  those  that  are  usually 
applied.  Still,  I  sympathize  with  much  that  has  been 
written  in  regard  to  the  extraordinary  progress  which  this 
patriotic,  imitative,  intelligent,  and  ambitious  people  have 
made  in  the  last  forty  years. 

I  think  my  strongest  feeling  was  one  of  joyful  thank- 
fulness that  we  were  no  longer  in  China,  and  that  we  had 
reached  a  beautiful  country  where  at  least  the  superficial 
elements  of  modern  civilization  are  apparent.  Kobe  is 
not  the  most  interesting  of  Japanese  cities  by  any  means, 
but  it  gave  me  those  fresh  impressions  which  constitute 
one  of  the  chief  delights  of  travel.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Atkinson 
and  their  family  of  bright  young  people  made  us  exceed- 
ingly welcome,  and  gave  us  a  new  sense  of  the  superiority 
of  things  American  quite  pleasant  to  our  patriotic  pride. 
In  the  afternoon,  accompanied  by  our  host  and  hostess, 
we  went  to  Hiogo  in  jinrikishas,  and  revelled  in  Japanese 
picturesqueness.  Everything  was  interesting,  even  the 
persistent  curiosity  of  the  people  at  the  Fair,  who  crowded 
around    us    as   we    inspected   the  booths    and    shops    and 


JAPAN  AND    THE  JAPANESE.  443 

shows.  We  saw  the  Daibutsu,  one  of  the  many  big  statues 
of  Buddha  found  in  Japan,  and  inside  of  it  I  discovered  a 
beautiful  bronze  of  Buddha  as  a  child,  with  a  fat,  sinister 
face  that  convulsed  us  with  laughter.  I  made  every  effort 
to  buy  it,  offering  twice  its  value,  but  all  in  vain.  It  was 
about  three  feet  and  a  half  high,  and  looked  a  little  like  a 
fat  child,  intoxicated  and  with  a  maudlin  leer.  It  was  hard 
to  give  it  up,  and,  presenting  ourselves  in  a  temple  to  some 
Buddhist  priests,  we  entered  into  negotiations,  which  ended, 
alas  !  in  talk,  for  the  capture  of  this  precious  thing. 

Then  we  drove  through  the  odd  streets,  past  all  sorts  of 
shops,  and  saw  a  stone  pagoda  and  another  bronze  Buddha 
with  a  halo  round  his  head,  holding  up  three  fingers  after 
the  fashion  of  his  Holiness  the  Pope.  In  the  evening  I 
lectured  in  the  church  of  Reverend  Mr.  Ebina,  and  had  my 
first  experience  in  Japan  of  attempting  to  move  an  audience 
through  an  interpreter.  The  Association  of  the  Kumai, 
or  Congregational  Churches  of  Japan,  was  to  meet  in  this 
church  the  next  day,  and  there  were  representative  Japa- 
nese pastors  present  from  all  over  the  Empire.  The  church 
building  itself  was  spacious  and  pretty,  and  on  the  platform 
in  a  beautiful  vase  was  a  large  branch  of  the  Japanese 
cherry-tree,  while  above  the  pulpit  were  two  Japanese  flags. 
The  national  spirit  enters  into  religion  here  as  perhaps 
nowhere  else  in  the  world.  Patriotism  is  a  chief  virtue  of 
the  people,  and  the  Christian  churches  are  eager  to  prove 
themselves  not  a  whit  behind  their  non-Christian  friends 
and  neighbors.  I  am  told  that  it  is  the  usual  thing  for  a 
foreign  speaker  to  occupy  a  large  part  of  his  address  in  an 
extended  eulogy  of  Japan.  He  cannot  possibly  say  any- 
thing too  extravagant,  for  the  people  are  quick  and  eager 
to  believe  everything  great  and  good  of  their  country.  I 
condensed  my  eulogium  into  a  few  sentences,  and  endeav- 
ored to  plunge  almost  immediately  into  my  lecture  ;  but  the 
interpreter,  although  he  had  a  printed  copy  of  the  address 
in  his  hand,  was  unable  to  get  my  ideas  before  the  audience. 
The  situation  became  unendurable,  and  finally  I  asked  the 


444  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

privilege  of  giving  my  lecture  without  interruption  to  the 
end,  while  the  interpreter  should  follow  at  his  leisure,  after 
I    had    finished.     About   a  fourth  of  the   audience    knew 
English,  and    accordingly    with    more    heart   and    hope    I 
resumed    my    task.       At   the    close    most   of  the    English 
hearers     and    those   who    understood    English    departed, 
while  my  poor  friend  was  left  with  the  remainder  of  the 
audience    struggling  on,   I    think,  till    about  midnight !     I 
have   now  made   twenty-two  addresses  in  Japan,  most  of 
them  through  an   interpreter,  and,  on  the  whole,  my  ex- 
perience has  been    satisfactory  and    delightful.     I    cannot 
speak  too  highly  of  the  ability  and  success  of  the  Japanese 
gentlemen  who  in  Osaka,  Kyoto,  and  Tokyo  have  repro- 
duced my  elaborate  and  somewhat  difficult  addresses.     In 
many  cases  they  entered  fully  into  the  spirit  of  the  lecture, 
and,  having  studied  it  in  advance,  were  able  with  fluency 
and  fire  to  enter  into  the  task  of  interpreting  my  message. 
In  some  cases  the  intellectual  ability  displayed  was  astonish- 
ing, and  the  tenacity  of  memory  very  remarkable.     I  would 
give  rapidly  two  or  three  pages,  and  the  interpreter  would 
start  in  as  soon  as  I  had  finished,  and  give  without  omission 
what  I   had   said.     Those  who  were    competent  to  judge 
pronounced  the  work  to  be  admirable,  and  frequently  the 
interpreter  would  reproduce  the  tones  of  my  voice  and  the 
gestures  of  my  hands  !     I  have  been  told  that  Reverend 
Joseph  Cook's  interpreter  in  Japan  entered  so  fully  into  the 
spirit  and  style  of  the  great  Boston  lecturer  that  even  to-day 
he  preaches  with  the  tones  and  manner  of  Joseph  Cook. 
The  Japanese  have  great  ability  in  imitation.     They  have 
imitated  Parisian  styles  of  dress,  German  methods  of  fight- 
ing, English  and  American  ways  in  commerce,  just  as  cen- 
turies ago  they  caught  the  trick  of  the  best    Chinese    art 
and    echoed  the   Confucianist    philosophy.     They   give    a 
national  tone   and  coloring  to   whatever  they  have   taken 
from  other  nations,  and  to  a  greater  degree  than    seems 
desirable,    they   have    endeavored    to    mould    and    modify 
Christianity  itself  till  it  assumes  Japanese  forms. 


JAPAN  AND    THE  JAPANESE.  445 

The  morning  after  my  lecture  I  looked  in  on  the  meeting 
of  the  Kumai  Association,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  they 
carried  on  their  business  with  commendable  order  and 
thoroughness.  The  chief  vice  of  Japanese  conferences  is 
a  tendency  to  tedious  detail  and  long-windedness.  What 
breaks  down  the  American  missionary  in  Japan  perhaps 
more  than  anything  else  is  the  "  Sodan,"  or  conference, 
without  which  nothing  can  be  done.  Some  trivial  matter 
in  church  affairs  comes  up  and  it  must  be  debated  endlessly 
hour  after  hour.  The  Japanese  church  officials  and  the 
nervous  and  would-be  patient  American  missionaries  sit 
and  talk  and  talk  and  talk.  An  affair  which  could  be 
settled  in  ten  minutes  by  a  little  common-sense  is  made 
the  theme  of  prolonged  discussion.  It  is  useless  to  attempt 
to  hurry  anything ;  that  would  cause  offence  and  new 
trouble.  There  is  no  sense  whatever  of  the  value  of  time 
in  Japan,  or  in  any  other  part  of  the  Orient.  With  his 
hands  full  of  all-important  work,  the  missionary  must  sit 
and  sit,  and  join  in  interminable  talk  till  he  comes  to  feel 
the  truth  of  Rudyard  Kipling's  description  of  British  experi- 
ences in  India,  — 

"  It  is  not  good  for  the  Christian's  health  to  hustle  the  Aryan  brown ; 
For  the  Christian  riles  and  the  Aryan  smiles,  and  he  weareth  the 

Christian  down  ; 
And  the  end  of  the  fight  is  a  tombstone  white,  with  the  name  of 

the  late  deceased, 
And  the  epitaph  drear:  'A  fool  lies  here  who  tried  to  hustle  the 

East.'  " 

But  let  us  not  blame  the  gentle  and  talkative  Oriental  too 
severely.  Think  of  the  British  Parliament,  and  the  American 
Congress,  remember  how  great  schemes  for  national  im- 
provement have  been  talked  to  death  in  the  Senate,  recall 
ecclesiastical  meetings  which  make  some  American  and 
English  pastors  sorry  almost  that  they  entered  the  ministry, 
remember  the  discipline  and  the  exhaustion  of  nerve  and 
the  emptying  of  all  hope  and  joy  out  of  life  which  are  the 
natural  results  of  the  trivial  detail  and  stupidity  of  some 
church  official  meetings,  even  in  energetic  America,  and  do 


446  A    IVOKLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

not  be  too  severe  on  the  Japanese  who  find  such  delight  in 
a  "  Sodan." 

One  cannot  travel  in  the  interior  of  Japan  without  a 
passport,  and  accordingly  I  made  my  way  through  the 
rain  to  the  office  of  the  American  Consul  in  Kobe  and 
secured  for  one  yen,  which  is  equal  to  fifty  cents,  that 
precious  document.  But,  alas  for  the  conditions  which 
accompanied  the  granting  of  this  right  to  travel  !  There 
were  certain  prohibitions,  two  of  which  I  will  mention, 
that  robbed  it  of  most  of  its  pleasure.  I  was  forbidden  to 
desecrate  Japanese  temples,  and  also  prohibited  from  at- 
tending a  fire  at  night  on  horseback  !  It  ought  to  be 
generally  known  in  America  that  these  harassing  conditions 
are  attached  to  the  granting  of  a  Japanese  passport. 
Many  of  us  would  not  visit  the  beautiful  Empire,  if  we 
knew  in  advance  that  we  could  not  plunder  heathen  shrines 
and  gallop  to  a  midnight  conflagration  on  our  fiery  steeds. 
When  I  recall  how,  in  Chicago,  when  the  fire  alarm  was 
rung,  I  used  to  mount  my  horse  in  the  night-time  and  ride 
to  the  vicinity  of  some  blazing  building  on  Halsted  Street 
or  Dearborn  Avenue,  there  to  meet  Drs.  Withrow,  Hillis, 
MacPherson,  Gunsaulus,  and  Noble,  it  seemed  to  me  that 
travel  in  Japan  had  lost  its  dearest  charm.  But  after 
a  while  one  recovers  even  from  such  disappointment,  and 
begins  to  wonder  at  the  reason  for  this  Japanese  regulation. 
That  reason  has  been  lost  in  the  twilight  of  unrecorded 
history ;  but  as  the  Japanese  cling  to  ancient  forms  out  of 
which  all  meaning  has  departed,  much  after  the  fashion  of 
some  European  Church-establishments,  we  will  not  fling  at 
them  any  very  bitter  criticisms. 

After  Mrs.  Barrows  had  visited  a  girls'  school  in  Kobe, 
and  delighted  her  heart  with  purchasing  some  fascinating 
china,  we  left  our  hospitable  friends,  and  in  a  pouring  rain 
began  a  brief  railway  journey  to  Osaka,  where  we  were  met 
by  Reverend  Mr.  Haworth  and  Reverend  Mr.  Fisher,  and 
were  soon  rolling  through  the  streets  of  this  great  town  to 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haworth's  delightful  house.     Even  in  a  pour- 


JAPAN  AND    THE  JAPANESE.  447 

ing  rain  one  can  be  perfectly  protected  in  a  jinrikisha.  But 
the  stout  little  Japanese  that  dragged  us  through  the  streets, 
each  one  of  whom  might  rightly  be  named  Pullman,  were 
among  the  oddest  spectacles  that  I  ever  saw,  with  their 
bare  feet  and  bare  legs  and  black  water-proof  capes  and 
broad  black  hats,  as  big  as  an  umbrella  and  just  the  shape 
of  a  toadstool. 

The  programme  at  Osaka  included  a  reception  at  Mr. 
Haworth's,  attended  by  over  forty  missionaries  of  all  de- 
nominations, with  some  Japanese  friends  superadded ;  an 
address  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  to  about  fifty  Japanese 
evangelists,  in  speaking  to  whom  I  endeavored  to  utter 
some  words  of  cheer  suggested  by  my  recent  experiences  in 
India ;  a  lecture  to  eight  hundred  people  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
building,  and  a  sermon  before  the  Osaka  Presbytery.  Be- 
sides this,  we  had  a  delightful  visit  at  the  girls'  school,  where 
we  met  Miss  Alice  Haworth,  Miss  A.  E.  Garvin,  and  Miss 
Ella  McGuire,  and  quite  a  number  of  Japanese  girls,  who 
burst  out  into  a  hearty  American  laugh  as  I  bade  them  good- 
by  on  the  lawn,  using  the  Japanese  word  "  Sayonara,"  which 
signifies,  "  If  it  must  be  so."  Among  the  Christian  mission- 
aries whom  we  met  in  Osaka  and  very  highly  appreciated, 
were  Reverend  Dr.  A.  D.  Hail  and  Reverend  J.  B.  Hail,  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church.  We  had  one  delightful 
afternoon  sight-seeing  in  company  with  a  number  of  our 
friends,  visiting  the  Mint,  which  was  closed  for  repairs,  and 
the  great  historic  Castle,  where  the  walls  show  you  immense 
stones  that  remind  you  almost  of  Baalbec.  What  cyclopean 
masonry  the  old  Japanese  have  left  us  !  And  who  can  forget 
the  splendid  view  of  Osaka  which  the  Castle  affords  !  Below 
us  and  around  us  was  a  city  of  six  hundred  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, —  the  Venice  of  Japan,  from  its  closeness  to  the  waters, 
and  the  Chicago  of  Japan,  from  its  commercial  enterprise. 
What  a  picture  the  rivers,  canals,  bridges,  smoking  factory- 
chimneys,  the  adjacent  fields,  and  the  encompassing  moun- 
tains made  on  that  April  afternoon  !  Inside  of  the  Castle 
once  lived  the  much  beloved  emperor  whose  picture  is  so 


448  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

frequently  seen  in  Japanese  homes,  the  famous  ruler  who 
let  his  palace  go  without  repairs   in  order  that  his  poor 
people  might  have  fuel  enough  to  send  through  their  chim- 
neys the  smoke  which  told   of  comfort  and  good  dinners 
within.     And  I  shall  not  forget  the  visit  to  the  great  Jap- 
anese prison,  with  its  four  thousand  inmates,  two  hundred 
and  thirty  of  whom  were  women.    The  courteous  and  capa- 
ble warden  accompanied  us  in  our  inspections.     The  ladies 
in  our  party  could  see  the  women,  but  not  the  men.     My 
missionary  companions  and  I  were  permitted  to  see  every- 
thing, and  certainly  it  was  one  of  the  best-kept  and  cleanest 
prisons  in  the  world.    The  ventilation  was  admirable.    The 
women  were  confined  in  wooden  cages,  and  wore  crushed 
strawberry  or  old  rose  gowns,  thick  and  quilted  !    They  spin, 
wash,  mend,  etc.,  and,  so  far  from  looking  like  hardened  crim- 
inals, or  criminals  at  all,  they  helped  to  make  the  whole  scene 
appear  like  a  joke.      We  were  told  that  no  one  ever  broke 
out  of  this  jail,  although  a  Yankee  prisoner  could  cut  his  way 
to  freedom  with  a  jack-knife  in  an  hour.    The  prisoners  are 
brought  in,  tied  together,  with  baskets  over  their  heads,  so 
as  not  to  show  their  faces   on  the  street.     Whenever  we 
entered  a  room  accompanied  by  the  warden,  a  signal  was 
given,  and  all  the  prisoners  stopped  work  and  bowed  their 
heads  to  the  floor,   keeping  them  there  in  this  posture  of 
abject  deference  until  the  signal  was  given  to  lift  themselves 
up  again.     Most  of  the  crimes  for  which  these  people  were 
incarcerated  had  to  do  with  various  forms  of  theft.     On  the 
whole,  we  were  much  pleased  with  what  we  saw  of  prison 
life  in' Japan,  and  we  devoutly  prayed  that  China,  when  she 
begins  to  imitate  Western  civilization,  may  introduce  a  little 
of  Western  humanity  into  her  treatment  of  criminals. 

The  old  capital  of  Japan,  Kyoto,  a  city  of  three  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  surpasses  all  other  Japanese  cities  in 
interest.  We  spent  six  most  delightful  days  there,  in  the  hos- 
pitable home  of  Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Porter.  The  rail- 
road ride  from  Osaka  carried  us  through  a  region  of  exquisite 
beauty  and  great  fertility.    But  the  city  itself,  with  its  temples, 


JAPAN  AND    THE  JAPANESE.  449 

shops,  and  manufactories,  where  the  finest  Japanese  art 
works  are  fashioned,  diverted  our  minds,  at  least  temporarily, 
from  the  serious  amount  of  work  which  I  undertook  to  do. 
Mr.  Porter  is  one  of  the  best  equipped  and  most  trusted  mis- 
sionaries in  Japan.  It  will  be  remembered  that  more  than 
a  year  ago  he  rode  on  his  bicycle  over  a  cliff  five  hundred 
feet  in  height,  and  had  an  almost  miraculous  escape  from 
death.  I  gave  two  lectures  in  the  town  hall,  and  had  an 
opportunity  of  addressing  many  Buddhist  priests,  and  the 
pleasure  also  of  meeting  the  eloquent  Mr.  Hirai,  who  offered 
me  a  Japanese  dinner,  which  I  was  unable  to  accept.  Mr. 
Hirai,  who  spoke  so  powerfully  at  the  World's  Congresses, 
is  now  engaged  in  teaching  children  in  Kyoto.  On  Sun- 
day I  preached  for  the  Japanese  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  morning,  and  then  at  Dr.  Davis's  home  delivered  a  ser- 
mon to  the  English-speaking  attendants.  In  the  evening  I 
addressed  an  audience  at  one  of  the  Kumai  churches,  where 
the  Christians  presented  me  with  a  book  full  of  Japanese 
pictures.  One  evening  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Porter  I  talked 
to  the  missionaries  and  others  of  my  work  in  India,  and 
I  gave  one  lecture  before  the  professors  and  students  of  the 
Doshisha  University,  of  whose  strange  and  checkered  his- 
tory one  hears  so  much  in  Japan.  Mr.  John  R.  Mott,  the 
young  evangelist  who  has  been  making  a  tour  of  the  world, 
did  excellent  work  at  the  Doshisha,  and  probably  helped 
forward  the  movement  for  a  change  which  will  bring  the 
University  into  some  accord  with  Christian  sentiment.  One 
of  the  saddest  experiences  in  the  evangelization  of  Japan 
has  been  the  persistent  and  successful  effort  of  the  Japanese 
Christians  who  have  lost  faith  in  evangelical  Christianity,  to 
gain  possession  of  the  University  and  use  it  for  ends  which 
are  abhorrent  to  the  noble  and  benevolent  American  Chris- 
tians who  have  lavished  their  money  upon  the  institution. 
It  shows  how  undeveloped  as  yet  is  the  Japanese  moral 
sense,  even  of  those  who  have  become  Christians,  that  this 
misuse  of  trust  funds  is  so  generally  justified.  It  is  believed, 
however,  that  a  better  day  is  coming  •  and  one  cannot  con- 

29 


45 O  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

verse  with  the  Japanese  Christian  ministers  and  with  the 
missionaries  in  Japan  without  being  convinced  that  the  ten- 
dency at  present  is  toward  a  more  positive  Christianity. 
Outside  of  the  Kumai  churches  there  has  been  no  general 
defection,  and  even  they  are  returning  to  the  faith. 

Every  one  who  goes  to  Kyoto  should  witness  the  manu- 
facturing of  cloisonne,  the  most  exquisite  and  wonderful 
work  of  that  sort  which  is  now  done  in  any  part  of  the 
world ;  and  of  course  American  women  will  not  fail  to  visit 
the  great  silk  stores.  Everybody  must  admire  some  features 
of  Japanese  civilization,  and  realize  that  in  certain  particu- 
lars the  Japanese  people  are  the  most  artistic  in  the  world. 
I  did  not  fall  in  love  with  Japanese  temples,  although  they 
are  a  vast  improvement  upon  the  ugly  and  unclean  shrines 
of  India. 

We  had  a  delightful  morning  visiting  the  new  Buddhist 
temple,  the  costliest  in  Japan,  which  bears  the  name  of  the 
Higashi  Hongwanji.  The  decorations  of  the  chancel  and 
shrine  are  gorgeous ;  but  the  worshippers  were  not  numer- 
ous, and  the  coins  which  were  scattered  on  the  mats  were 
usually  of  the  smallest  size,  the  tenth  of  a  sen.  It  was  too 
cold  to  walk  through  this  temple  in  stocking-feet,  and  ac- 
cordingly we  went  to  a  shop  and  purchased  slippers,  which 
were  useful  in  our  visit  to  the  next  great  temple,  the  Nishi 
Hongwanji.  Those  who  go  to  Kyoto  must  not  fail  to  get 
the  superb  view  from  the  Yaami  Hotel  on  the  steep  hill- 
side, nor  to  visit  the  interesting  shrine  and  the  immense 
bell  in  this  neighborhood,  nor  to  see  the  colossal  Diabutsu, 
which  is  a  big  hollow  mask  of  a  thing,  nor  to  visit  the  great 
Kuannon  Temple,  with  thirty-three  thousand  three  hundred 
and  thirty-three  bronze  statues  of  the  Goddess  of  Mercy. 
But  time  fails  me  to  describe  our  visit  to  Nara,  with  its 
lovely  park  where  the  deer  are  so  tame  and  the  cryptomerias 
are  so  wonderful,  and  the  Shinto  Temple  is  so  picturesquely 
situated. 

It  was  cherry-blossom  time  when  we  saw  the  old  capital, 
and  never  shall  I  forget  the  magnificent  cherry-tree  which 


DAIBUTSU. 


JAPAN  AND    THE  JAPANESE.  45  I 

we  admired  in  the  early  evening,  illuminated  with  electric 
lights  and  bonfires,  near  which  the  people  had  built  booths, 
and  where  thousands  had  come  to  see  the  pink  wonder. 
The  finest  of  the  cherry-trees  have  double  blossoms,  and 
all  the  famous  trees  are  without  fruit.  But  the  admiration 
of  the  people  for  this  floral  marvel  knows  no  limits,  and  all 
visitors  become  Japanese  through  beautiful  sympathy.  In 
Tokyo  the  display  a  week  later  in  the  parks  was  even  more 
superb.  In  Kyoto,  however,  we  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
the  cherry-blossom  dance,  which  lasted  an  hour.  After  re- 
moving our  shoes,  and  entering  the  hall,  we  were  served 
with  tea  and  sweetmeats,  and  then  went  into  the  room 
where  ten  girls  on  each  side  played  for  us  the  drums  and 
stringed  instruments  of  the  orchestra,  while  twenty  others 
on  each  side  filed  in  with  cherry-blossoms  on  their  dresses 
and  in  their  hair  and  in  their  hands.  The  scenery  was 
beautiful,  the  dance  was  simple  posturing,  and  the  whole 
scene  seemed  to  be  out  of  doors  under  a  big  cherry-tree. 

On  Lake  Bewa  I  spent  a  morning  in  the  company  of 
Reverend  Zitsusen  Ashitsu,  one  of  the  Buddhist  priests  who 
attended  the  Congress  of  Religions.  Accompanied  by  Mr. 
Porter  and  six  sons  of  missionaries,  we  rode  by  rail  to  Otsu, 
a  little  town  where  the  attempt  was  made  a  few  years  ago 
on  the  life  of  the  present  Czar  of  Russia.  Here  we  took 
jinrikishas  around  Lake  Bewa  and  across  the  canal.  The 
views  of  lake  and  mountain  were  picturesque  and  delightful 
in  the  extreme.  We  visited  the  famous  pine-tree  which 
spreads  out  over  the  ground  for  nearly  two  hundred 
feet,  and  then  rode  up  to  the  Buddhist  temple,  where  we 
inquired  for  the  friend  who  had  asked  us  to  visit  him.  He 
had  been  waiting  for  us,  and  soon,  clothed  in  his  finest 
robes,  he  came  out  to  meet  us,  and  embraced  me  with 
genuine  warmth.  Holding  my  hand,  he  conducted  us  up 
the  long  path  bordered  with  trees  which  led  to  his  beautiful 
home,  the  outlook  from  which,  over  the  placid  lake  and  on 
toward  the  eastern  mountains,  is  restful  and  lovely.  Tea 
and  sweets  were  served  us,  and  chairs  were  brought  in  for 


452 


A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 


the  whole  company.  Our  friend  desired  to  make  us  com- 
fortable, after  the  American  fashion,  and  we  were  not  re- 
quired to  sit  upon  our  toes  on  the  mats.  After  we  were 
seated,  according  to  the  forms  of  Japanese  politeness,  we 
began  a  succession  of  bows ;  but  soon,  through  my  friend 
and  interpreter,  I  was  able  to  begin  a  connected  conversa- 
tion with  the  humane  and  intelligent  disciple  of  Gautama. 
The  missionary  boys  were  given  photographs  of  the  Colum- 
bian Exposition  to  look  at,  and  our  Buddhist  host  was  evi- 
dently happy  to  bring  before  us  as  much  of  America  as 
possible.  We  had  a  long  exchange  of  views  about  many 
things,  and  I  was  particularly  pleased  when  Ashitsu  informed 
me  that  since  1893  the  Buddhists  of  Japan  had  a  more 
friendly  feeling  toward  Christianity  and  its  representatives. 
He  insisted  on  our  eating  luncheon  in  his  rooms ;  but  as  we 
had  promised  the  boys  a  picnic,  he  had  to  be  content  with 
our  using  his  yard,  where  he  and  other  priests  waited  upon 
us,  contributing  some  Japanese  viands  to  the  food  which  we 
had  brought  with  us.  We  found  it  difficult  to  tear  ourselves 
away  from  the  gentle  and  hospitable  soul  who  remembered 
America  with  such  loving  interest.  This  fourteenth  of  April 
was  to  me  one  of  the  supreme  days  in  my  journey  round 
the  world.  It  was  a  happy  fulfilment  of  hopes  which  I  en- 
tertained for  years. 

That  evening  we  reached  Nagoya  on  our  road  to  Yoko- 
hama, and  the  next  morning  our  hostess,  Mrs.  Buchanan, 
conducted  us  round  the  castle,  where  we  saw  the  parade- 
ground  and  the  soldiers  drilling,  cavalry  and  infantry  manoeu- 
vring, or  firing  at  targets.  They  are  said  to  be  excellent 
soldiers ;  tough,  brave  little  fellows,  able  to  endure  a  great 
deal,  and  to  climb  like  cats.  Let  no  nation  underrate  the 
fighting  qualities  and  effectiveness  of  the  Japanese.  But 
they  look  very  oddly  on  horseback,  and  their  uniforms  seem 
ugly,  adding  to  the  natural  unpleasantness  of  the  features 
of  the  Japanese  men.  It  was  eleven  o'clock  that  night 
when  our  train  carried  us  through  the  pouring  rain  into  the 
station  at  Yokohama,  where  we  have  been  entertained  with 


JAPAN  AND    THE  JAPANESE.  453 

delightful  hospitality  by  Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  L. 
Deering,  Baptist  missionaries,  and  by  Reverend  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Henry  Loomis. 

I  made  several  addresses  in  Yokohama,  took  a  ride 
round  Mississippi  Bay,  and  saw  Treaty  Point,  but  no 
Fuji  as  yet  lifting  his  snow-white  cone.  Our  six  days  in 
Tokyo  were  spent  at  the  home  of  Reverend  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
McNair,  one  of  those  homes  which  I  deem  points  of  light 
in  Asia,  more  brilliant  by  reason  of  surrounding  darkness 
or  twilight.  Here  we  met  also  Miss  West,  one  of  the  most 
capable  of  missionaries.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe 
Tokyo,  a  city  of  interminable  distances,  flat  and  uninterest- 
ing in  many  parts  of  it,  exceedingly  beautiful  in  others,  with 
cherry-trees  and  spacious  grounds  and  gardens.  We  spent 
one  morning  at  the  University,  and  realized  that  Japan  has 
captured  from  Germany,  Great  Britain,  and  America  many  of 
the  intellectual  elements  of  civilization.  The  Museums  are 
large  and  interesting.  The  library  is  spacious  ;  the  methods 
are  those  of  the  latest  Western  science.  The  most  beautiful 
place  in  Tokyo  is  the  famous  Ueno  Park,  which  we  found 
full  of  people,  gay  with  venders  of  toys  and  sweets,  and 
with  paths  covered  with  "snow  that  never  saw  the  sky." 
The  cherry-trees  were  in  their  richest  bloom,  or  slightly 
past  it.  The  temples  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Park  were 
more  thronged  than  any  others  I  have  seen  in  Japan. 

The  most  interesting  day  which  I  spent  in  Tokyo  was  at 
a  reception  given  in  the  Botanical  Gardens,  where  many 
men  of  many  minds  gave  me  cordial  greeting,  treating  me 
to  foods  of  many  kinds.  Christians,  Buddhists,  Shintoists, 
and  Confucianists  joined  in  a  welcome  which  lasted  for 
several  hours.  It  was  in  a  pavilion,  or  tea-house,  and  I 
was  called  upon  to  express  my  mind  in  regard  to  several 
religious  questions.  Reverend  Mr.  Yokoi,  the  newly  elected 
president  of  Doshisha  University,  was  there,  and  also  Shi- 
bata,  a  high-priest  of  Shintoism,  who  attended  the  Parlia- 
ment in  Chicago.  After  the  reception  we  called,  by 
invitation,  on  Count  Inouye,  one  of  the  leading  Japanese 


454  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

statesmen,  now  out  of  power,  and  had  a  delightful  conver 
sation  with  him,  his  daughter,  and  his  son-in-law.  They  all 
speak  English  well,  and  have  most  charming  manners.  The 
Count  is  one  of  the  foremost  makers  of  modern  Japan,  and 
will  doubtless  come  back  to  power  again.  He  deprecated 
the  idea  of  Japan  wishing  to  go  to  war  with  anybody,  and 
expressed  the  conviction  that  she  could  not  afford  to  do  it 
at  present.  Before  leaving  Tokyo  on  Thursday,  the  twenty- 
second  of  April,  I  addressed  a  large  company,  perhaps  one 
hundred  and  fifty  missionaries,  in  the  Union  Church; 
among  them  such  well-known  veterans  as  Dr.  Greene. 
They  did  not  appear  like  a  discouraged  or  disheartened 
company  of  people,  but  quite  otherwise.  In  the  evening  of 
that  day  I  addressed  a  similar  company  of  Christian  work- 
ers in  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Deering's  home  in  Yokohama.  This 
was  my  last  address  before  leaving  for  America. 

The  next  day  was  given  to  preparations  for  the  long  voy- 
age, although  in  the  afternoon  we  took  a  lovely  trip  to 
Kamakura,  where  we  saw  the  stateliest  and  finest  of  all  the 
Buddhas.  It  is  a  majestic  figure,  symbolizing  intellectual 
peace,  nearly  fifty  feet  high  and  nearly  one  hundred  feet 
in  circumference.  The  thumb  is  three  feet  around.  The 
curls  on  the  head  are  eight  hundred  and  thirty  in  num- 
ber. The  eyes  are  said  to  be  of  pure  gold,  and  the  silver 
boss  in  the  centre  of  the  forehead  weighs  thirty  pounds 
avoirdupois.  But  more  impressive  and  memorable  than 
the  sight  of  this  Buddha  were  the  views  we  had  that  day  of 
Fujiyama.  The  sacred  mount  of  Japan  has  a  charm  all  its 
own.  It  has  the  beauty  of  symmetry  and  whiteness,  of  lonely 
and  sovereign  majesty.  It  seems  like  a  special  creation  of 
the  Almighty  to  dominate  with  its  stately  loveliness  the 
loveliest  of  Eastern  lands,  and  to  fill  the  hearts  of  its  peo- 
ple with  proud  and  happy  thoughts.  It  is  not  appropriate 
to  compare  it  with  the  Himalayas,  for  they  are  a  mighty 
range  of  snowy  heights  far  away  from  the  centre  of  populous 
India.  Here  is  a  peak  which  stands  out  alone  and  is  visi- 
ble from  all  sides  of  Dai  Nippon,  as  the  Japanese  call  their 


JAPAN  AND    THE  JAPANESE.  455 

own  land.  I  scarcely  wonder  that  the  people  hold  the 
mountain  to  be  sacred,  nor  did  I  marvel  that  its  glorious 
form  is  constantly  reproduced  in  Japanese  art.  I  took  the 
vision  of  its  beautiful  summit  as  a  prophecy  of  the  time 
when  this  mountain  of  the  gods  shall  be  a  mountain  of  the 
one  true  God,  and  look  down  upon  a  land  whose  people, 
Christianized,  may  contribute  some  of  the  finest  and 
strongest  forces  toward  the  evangelization  of  Asia. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

HOME    COMING. 

TT  is  a  long  way  in  space  and  time  from  Yokohama,  which 
-*•  we  left  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  to  the  island  of 
Mackinac,  in  Northern  Michigan,  where  my  pilgrimage 
ended  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  June.  Quite  a  number  of  friends 
gave  us  a  kindly  send-off  from  that  far  Eastern  port,  the 
splendid  gateway  through  which  the  tides  of  our  Western 
civilization  flowed  in  upon  the  Island  Empire.  I  carried 
with  me  on  board  the  ship  "  China  "  a  copy  of  the  "  Japan 
Mail  "  of  that  day  containing  a  valedictory  address  which 
I  had  sent  out  to  Christian  and  non-Christian  friends,  a  let- 
ter in  which  I  took  occasion  to  correct  some  wrong  impres- 
sions which  were  formerly  circulated  in  regard  to  the 
present  strength  of  American  Christianity.  The  ship  was 
crowded  with  home-coming  passengers,  —  missionaries  from 
Burmah,  China,  Japan  ;  English  officials  returning  to  take 
part  in  the  Victoria  Diamond  Jubilee  ;  the  family  of  an 
American  Consul ;  members  of  Sir  Robert  Hart's  Chinese 
Revenue  Service  ;  merchants,  travellers  ;  a  Cerman  Admiral ; 
the  courteous  and  very  intelligent  German  Governor  of  the 
Marshall  Islands  ;  and  six  hundred  Chinese  and  four  hun- 
dred Japanese  workmen,  bound  for  the  Hawaiian  Islands, 
the  Nashville  Centennial  Celebration,  and  the  ports  of  South 
America.  After  two  days  of  rather  dark  and  rough  weather, 
the  widest  of  oceans  became  delightfully  smooth,  and  the 
warm  air  breathed  through  the  constant  sunshine.  On 
Thursday,  the  twenty-ninth  of  April,  we  crossed  the  one 
hundred  and  eightieth  meridian,  and  so  the  captain  required 


HOME    COMING.  457 

us  to  live  that  day  over  again.  One  Thursday  was  spent  in 
the  Eastern,  and  the  second  in  the  Western  Hemisphere, 
one  Asiatic  and  the  other  American.  The  passengers  were 
usually  in  a  very  happy  mood,  and  contributed  in  various 
ways  to  the  general  entertainment,  through  music,  ath- 
letics, recitations,  lectures,  or  sermons.  My  contribution 
was  a  sermon  on  the  second  Sunday  morning,  followed  by 
a  lecture  on  Shakespeare  on  the  first  of  May.  At  noon  on 
May  second,  we  passed  Bird  Island,  a  prominent  and  pic- 
turesque rocky  point  over  eight  hundred  feet  high.  And 
on  the  third  of  May  we  awoke  to  find  ourselves  near  a 
most  beautiful  coast,  and  soon  we  entered  the  harbor  of 
Honolulu.  Reverend  Dr.  Charles  Hyde,  at  the  head  of  im- 
portant educational  institutions  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands, 
came  aboard  the  ship,  and  after  my  former  parishioner,  Dr. 
Day,  the  Health  Inspector,  had  given  us  a  clean  bill,  we  were 
permitted  to  land  and  to  inspect  the  chief  city  of  the  tiny 
republic.  Accompanied  by  Dr.  Hyde,  we  visited  nearly 
every  sort  of  educational  and  philanthropic  institution  pro- 
vided for  the  peoples  of  four  races  who  inhabit  the  islands. 
Like  other  visitors,  we  realized  that  we  were  in  the  para- 
dise of  the  Pacific.  The  constant  factor,  climate,  is  here  a 
friend  to  every  human  enjoyment ;  and  some  American 
ladies  who  had  spent  two  months  in  the  islands  and  accom- 
panied us  aboard  the  "China,"  declared  that  neither  in 
Southern  France,  California,  nor  Egypt  had  they  ever  passed 
so  delightful  a  winter.  Whoever  visits  Honolulu  should  see 
the  Museum,  which  contains  the  finest  collection  to  be 
found  anywhere  of  objects  illustrating  the  life  of  the  Pacific 
islanders.  In  the  evening  of  our  only  day  in  Honolulu,  I 
delivered  a  lecture  in  the  Union  Church,  probably  the  only 
church  on  the  earth  where  Christian  work  is  carried  on 
every  Sunday  in  five  languages,  —  English,  Hawaiian,  Portu- 
guese, Japanese,  and  Chinese.  On  the  next  morning  our 
kindly  host,  Dr.  Hyde,  accompanied  us  to  the  government 
building  and  several  other  institutions,  and  then  we  em- 
barked again  on  the  "China." 


458  A     WORLD-PIL  GRIM  A  GE. 

We  found  in  Honolulu  more  of  America,  more  of  its 
energy  and  spirit,  than  in  any  other  community  which  I 
have  seen  in  the  World-Pilgrimage.  If  I  were  asked  to 
name  the  place  which  I  have  seen  in  all  the  world  where 
Christian  civilization,  as  shown  in  general  intelligence  and 
morality  and  good-will  among  different  races,  in  the  abun- 
dance of  schools,  asylums,  and  churches,  in  general  material 
prosperity,  and  in  zealous  devotion  to  the  expansion  of 
God's  kingdom  on  earth,  has  reached  its  brightest  manifes- 
tation, I  should  mention  without  a  moment's  hesitancy  this 
tiny  state  in  the  Pacific,  which  Christian  missions  lifted  out 
of  savagery,  and  which,  as  it  seems  now  probable,  may  soon 
be  linked  to  the  sisterhood  of  American  commonwealths. 
I  met  several  members  of  the  Hawaiian  government,  and 
talked  with  quite  a  number  of  the  leading  citizens.  Un- 
doubtedly the  intelligence  and  morality  of  the  community 
are  strongly  favorable  to  annexation.  Of  the  strategic 
importance  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  the  key  to  the 
Northern  Pacific  Ocean,  as  the  "  London  Times  "  has  said, 
Americans  are  likely  to  learn  something  more  in  the  near 
future.  That  recognized  authority  on  naval  warfare,  Captain 
Mahan,  has  shown  conclusively  the  imperative  duty  resting 
upon  the  United  States  of  securing  so  important  a  factor 
in  the  defence  of  our  coast  line,  and  of  protecting  for  all  the 
future  our  rapidly  growing  interests  in  the  Pacific  world. 

It  was  a  five  days'  voyage  from  Honolulu  to  the  Golden 
Gate,  which  we  entered  on  the  tenth  of  May.  In  all  the 
brilliant  Orient  I  had  seen  nothing  so  grateful  to  my  heart 
as  the  sight  of  my  own  country.  The  heart-hunger  of  the 
exile  had  been  ours,  notwithstanding  all  that  we  had  expe- 
rienced of  pleasure.  In  the  Palace  Hotel  we  received  the 
warm  greetings  not  only  of  San  Francisco  friends,  but  of 
many  others  far  away  whose  letters  waited  to  welcome  us. 
The  next  afternoon  I  addressed  the  ministers  of  the  city 
and  Christian  women  interested  in  foreign  missionary  work, 
and  by  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  were  on  the  ferry  of 
the  "  Overland   Limited,"  and  half  an  hour  later  were  as 


HOME   COMING.  459 

comfortably  settled  in  our  "  section  "  as  if  we  had  never 
travelled  outside  of  America.  Through  gardens  and 
wheat-fields,  over  snowy  heights,  across  wide  deserts,  climb- 
ing mountains  again,  and  then  down  over  the  long,  long 
plains,  for  three  days  we  sped  eastward,  beholding  a  land 
where  all  the  people  seemed  to  us  prosperous,  and  where 
our  eyes  were  delivered  from  the  sights  which  had  saddened 
them  in  the  East.  It  was  on  the  fifteenth  of  May  that  we 
arrived  at  Rockford,  Illinois,  where  we  had  the  joy  of  meet- 
ing again  the  little  children  who  had  bravely  and  sometimes 
anxiously  awaited  our  return.  After  six  weeks  of  lecturing 
and  preaching  in  Chicago,  and  a  visit  to  Smith  College,  in 
Massachusetts,  where  we  met  our  older  children,  the  long- 
broken  household  was  finally  reunited  on  this  pleasantest  of 
islands.  Under  one  roof  at  last,  we  recall  the  marvellous 
way  in  which  we  have  been  led.  There  is  much  talk  of 
Europe  and  Egypt,  of  India,  and  Japan,  and  of  a  thousand 
strange  experiences.  I  am  thankful  that  the  work  which 
took  me  from  my  home  and  country  has  been  finished,  and 
that  once  more  I  can  feel  myself  an  inhabitant  as  well  as  a 
citizen  of  America. 

Looking  out  on  the  Straits  of  Mackinac  from  this 
fairest  of  Northern  isles,  I  have  leisure,  while  the  winds  are 
fanning  the  joyous  leaves  and  the  peewee  is  whistling  his 
sweetly  plaintive  note,  to  live  over  the  memorable  days  of 
the  now  completed  World-Pilgrimage.  The  feeling  of  be- 
ing at  home  is  very  strong  and  pleasant,  not  only  because 
the  household  has  been  reunited,  but  also  for  the  reason 
that  the  land  of  the  pine  is,  on  the  whole,  more  congenial 
than  the  palmy  plains  of  the  Orient.  When  Sindbad  had 
finished  an  adventurous  voyage,  he  usually  resolved  to  re- 
main thereafter  in  Bagdad,  —  a  resolution,  happily  for  us, 
made  only  to  be  broken.  But  the  only  voyages  which  I 
now  contemplate  are  those  of  memory  and  imagination, 
and  I  find  that  all  my  recollections  are  bathed  and  steeped 
in  devout  and  loving  gratitude  to  Him  to  whom  belongeth 
the  sea  and  whose  hand  formed  the  dry  land. 


460  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

Many  pictures  pass  before  my  vision,  many  voices  come 
to  my  hearing,  as  I  circumnavigate  the  globe  once  more. 
What  leagues  of  ocean,  placid  as  these  waters,  or  tossed 
into  tumbling  crags  of  sapphire  and  emerald,  smoothed 
with  warm  winds  from  tropic  isles  or  chilled  by  blasts  from 
rocky  and  Arctic  shores,  stretch  on  and  on  before  my 
inner  eye  !  What  dear  and  loving  faces  gather  around  us 
at  the  tearful  hour  of  separation  or  the  glad  dawn  of  home- 
coming !  Numberless  are  the  accents  of  kindness  that 
float  from  many  lands  through  these  whispering  leaves. 
And  what  a  multitude  of  strange  faces  throng  around  this 
cottage,  —  faces  first  seen  on  the  decks  of  many  ships,  in 
the  halls  of  Paris  or  Cairo,  or  at  the  gates  of  far  Eastern 
cities  !  Once  more  the  muezzin  calls  to  prayer  from  the 
minarets  of  Delhi,  and  I  hear  again  the  Buddhist  drums  in 
the  shrines  of  Ceylon  and  Japan.  The  waters  of  many 
rivers  flash  and  murmur  by.  J  see  again  the  Rhine  and 
the  Weser,  the  Thames  and  the  Tiber,  the  twinkling  and 
many-colored  lights  along  the  Seine  and  the  willows  that 
shade  the  Jordan,  the  palms  that  lift  themselves  on  either 
bank  of  the  Nile,  the  strange  boats  on  the  Yang-tse,  the  pil- 
grims and  bathers  in  the  waters  of  the  Ganges,  and  the  peer- 
less white  dome  reflected  in  the  loving  bosom  of  the 
Jumna.  And  what  are  these  heights  that  rise  out  of  the 
landscapes  of  memory?  Men  call  them  the  Hartz  and 
the  Apennines,  Sinai  and  Fujiyama,  the  Mountains  of  Moab, 
Adam's  Peak,  Kinchinjunga.  "  They  are  but  the  raised 
letters  of  the  alphabet  of  infinity,  whereby  we,  poor  blind 
children  of  men,  spell  out  the  great  name  of  God."  And 
around  the  habitations  of  men,  some  little  dorf  in  Germany, 
some  prosperous  city  of  England,  Italy,  or  Japan,  or  some 
immemorial  village  of  India,  with  unwritten  laws  and  cus- 
toms more  ancient  than  the  statutes  of  Manu  or  Moses,  or 
about  some  planter's  home  in  the  neighborhood  of  Kandy 
or  Darjeeling,  what  fields  of  wheat  and  tea  and  millet,  or 
vivid  rice  or  tasselled  corn,  stretch  on  and  on  before  the 
gaze  of  memory  !     Sitting  on   this  bench  four  years  ago, 


HOME   COMING.  46 1 

I  meditated  and  wrote  the  address  of  welcome  which  I 
delivered  before  the  representatives  of  twelve  hundred 
millions  gathered  at  the  World's  Parliament  of  Religions. 
The  thought  and  purposes  embodied  in  that  address  and  in 
that  gathering  broke  the  strong  ties  which  held  me  to 
church  and  city  and  sent  me  as  a  pilgrim  around  the  world. 
And  now,  sitting  here  again,  looking  at  the  same  sparkling 
waters  and  shaded  by  the  same  fragrant  boughs,  the  great 
world  of  religion,  with  its  many-costumed  representatives, 
rises  before  me.  I  hear  the  beautiful  choirs  in  English 
cathedrals  ;  I  lift  up  my  eyes  to  Giotto's  Tower  in  Florence, 
and  see  again  the  fragments  of  the  Parthenon ;  I  hear  the 
dervishes  in  their  wild  and  woful  chants  ;  I  walk  by  the 
pyramids,  enter  the  sacred  tombs  of  Memphis,  meditate 
once  more  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  stand  beneath  the 
domes  of  churches  which  rebuke  and  confound  in  their 
majesty  all  earthly,  pride  ;  converse  with  scholars  in  Oxford 
or  Benares ;  watch  the  solemn  idolaters  in  the  bat-infested 
temple  of  Madura  or  the  lighter-hearted  pilgrims  who  in 
Japan  call  upon  Amida- Buddha ;  or  lift  up  my  voice  in 
Madras  or  Tokyo  in  the  name  of  the  Universal  Man  and 
Saviour,  and  thank  God  that  I  have  learned  to  love  and 
pity  the  children  of  many  faiths,  and  to  believe  that  the 
less  perfect  may  be  prophecies  of  that  fulness  of  truth  and 
grace  which  are  found  in  the  Son  of  God. 

The  human  world,  as  the  traveller  remembers  it,  is  one  of 
bewildering  variety.  I  think  now  of  clothes  as  well  as 
of  faces,  of  foods  and  drinks  as  well  as  of  forms  and  colors, 
of  houses  as  well  as  of  national  and  religious  distinctions, 
ambitions,  and  interests.  And  yet,  underneath  these  varie- 
ties what  unities  are  discovered ;  what  common  needs, 
fears,  hopes,  and  aspirations  !  Humanity,  whether  it  is 
found  among  the  Chinese  coolies  on  the  Bund  in  Shanghai 
or  the  Chowringee  Road  in  Calcutta,  the  Champs  Elys^es 
or  the  Unter  den  Linden,  whether  it  walks  the  Strand  or 
the  Corso,  the  Via  Dolorosa  of  Jerusalem  or  the  Galata 
Bridge   of   Constantinople,  possesses  an  essential  oneness 


462  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

which  augmenting  numbers  of  people  are  coming  to  recog- 
nize. I  feel  the  solidarity  of  mankind  as  never  before. 
Distant  peoples  do  not  seem  so  distant,  either  in  space  or 
in  character.  As  I  know  that  I  can  go  all  the  way  by 
water  from  this  island  to  the  island  of  Sicily  or  Ceylon,  so 
my  heart,  when  true  to  its  higher  instincts,  reaches  out  in  a 
sympathy  unbroken  by  diverse  creeds  and  conditions  to  the 
plague-smitten  sufferers  in  Bombay,  the  starving  children 
in  Jubbelpore,  and  to  the  millions  bound  by  supersti- 
tions in  Africa  and  China.  Every  Board  of  Trade  recog- 
nizes a  community  of  interests  the  world  over ;  every 
student  of  history  and  political  economy  perceives  some 
interdependence  among  nations.  Hundreds  of  travellers 
in  the  East  and  Far  East  have  seen  how  much  Great 
Britain  has  done  to  bring  the  Oriental  nations,  through 
trade  and  language,  into  touch  with  the  Western  world. 
But  besides  all  this,  and  more  than  all  this,  I  have  come  to 
feel  the  growing  universalism  of  Christianity,  and  the  rapid 
acceptance  by  multitudes  in  Asia  of  the  truths  of  Divine 
fatherhood  and  human  fraternity.  The  time  has  passed 
by  for  provincialism  of  thought  and  provincialism  of  feeling. 
The  Victorian  era  marks  a  vast  enlargement  of  the  realm 
of  human  sympathy,  even  if  many  of  those  who  through 
commerce,  war,  or  science  have  widened  man's  moral  and 
intellectual  realm  appear  themselves  both  hard  and  narrow. 
Like  others  from  the  beginning  of  time,  they  are  building 
better  than  they  know.  The  missionary  is  sowing  the 
furrows  in  the  Orient,  upturned  by  the  ploughshare  of 
wicked  war.  The  commercial  and  political  ambitions  and 
rivalries  of  Russia  and  England,  of  France  and  Germany, 
of  Japan  and  China,  are  helping  to  break  up  the  sluggish- 
ness and  seclusion  of  the  East,  and  both  the  Orient  and  the 
Occident  share  in  that  widening  of  thought  which  comes 
with  the  process  of  the  suns. 

I  have  returned  home  with  an  increasing  sense  of  the 
value  of  America  in  the  evangelization  of  Asia.  Emerged 
at  last  from  the  backwoods  of  theology,  having  cleared  her 


HOME   COMING.  463 

skirts  from  the  stain  of  slavery,  delivered  with  wonderful 
rapidity  from  provincialism  of  spirit  in  the  last  thirty  years 
of  commercial  and  intellectual  expansion,  instructed  by 
that  religion  which  has  moulded  her  best  life  to  spread  its 
benign  influences  everywhere,  America  is  coming  to  be 
regarded  as  a  missionary  force  of  the  highest  quality  and 
greatest  power.  In  the  whole  course  of  ray  travel  from 
Constantinople  to  Honolulu  I  felt  the  presence  and  benefi- 
cent influence  of  the  men  and  women  who  represent  Ameri- 
can Christianity.  Other  Christian  nations  in  the  East  stand 
for  something  else  than  unselfish  philanthropy.  The  Brit- 
ish occupation  of  India,  while  an  incalculable  blessing  to 
that  country,  has  awakened  much  besides  gratitude  in  the 
Hindu  heart.  English  missionaries  sometimes  confess 
their  inability  to  win  the  affections  of  those  to  whose  up- 
lifting they  have  gladly  given  their  lives.  They  frequently 
said  to  me,  "  You  Americans  have  an  advantage  over  us." 
Immense  and  increasing  are  the  responsibilities  resting 
upon  the  Christians  in  America  to  enter  vigorously  into  the 
Christian  conquest  of  Asia. 

I  saw  and  learned  nothing  to  justify  the  sweeping  criti- 
cism that  missions  are  doing  more  harm  than  good  in 
China.  And  while  not  all  missionaries  are  wise,  and 
Christian  work  in  the  Orient  reflects  the  imperfections  of 
the  churches  in  the  Occident,  I  have  returned  home  with 
a  deeper  conviction  that  our  Christian  representatives  in 
Asia  stand  for  that  intellectual  and  moral  force  and  spiritual 
vitality  which  seem  to  have  passed  out  of  the  much-praised 
Eastern  faiths.  Still,  the  divisions  of  Christendom,  the 
cruel  and  revengeful  belligerency  of  European  nations,  and 
the  average  character  of  the  European  populations  in  the 
Orient  are  fearful  hindrances  to  the  rapid  spread  of  the 
Gospel.  One  cannot  praise  very  highly  the  Anglo-Indian 
character,  especially  as  it  displays  itself  in  the  port-cities 
of  Asia.  The  English  are  the  great  civilizers,  but  what 
crimes  and  miserable  blunders  have  characterized  their 
occupation  of  India  I     Perhaps  no  other  nation  would  have 


464  *    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

done  so  well,  and  one  shudders  at  the  calamities  which 
would  inevitably  follow  the  English  withdrawal  from  India. 
An  English  novelist  describes  her  people  as  one  "  that  lives 
to  make  mistakes  and  dies  to  retrieve  them."  A  wiser  and 
less  selfish  policy  must  increasingly  characterize  Great 
Britain's  dominion  in  the  Orient,  if  the  British  Empire  is  to 
justify  fully  Mr.  Curzon's  eulogy  of  it  as,  "  under  Provi- 
dence, the  greatest  instrument  for  good  the  world  has  seen." 
I  do  not  undervalue  that  empire,  and  a  voyage  around  the 
world  does  not  lessen  one's  sense  of  England's  importance 
and  of  the  general  beneficence  of  her  rule. 

In  my  memories  of  our  finished  journey  I  can  scarcely 
recall  a  half-score  disagreeable  experiences.  How  wide 
and  beautiful  is  the  domain  of  kindness,  and  what  favor- 
ing Providences  marked  our  circuit  of  the  globe  !  In 
eighty-four  days  of  sea-travel  we  never  knew  a  moment's 
sickness ;  in  all  my  land  journeyings  I  never  missed  a  train 
or  an  appointment.  How  marvellous  have  been  the  tri- 
umphs of  man  over  the  forces  of  Nature  !  The  steamship 
appears  to  me  a  more  wonderful  achievement  to-day  than 
when  I  set  sail  from  New  York.  The  international  postal 
system  is  a  potent  and  astonishing  force  in  unitizing  peoples 
as  well  as  in  adding  to  the  comforts  of  travel.  And  what 
prodigious  things  man  has  already  wrought !  Think  of  India 
covered  with  railroads,  climbing  her  mountains  and  bind- 
ing together  her  cities  !  Think  of  the  cathedrals,  mosques, 
and  temples  which  the  instinct  of  worship  has  reared, 
of  the  tunnels  and  bridges  and  aqueducts,  the  quays  and 
factories  and  Government  Houses,  the  hospitals,  universities, 
the  law-courts,  the  forts,  the  armies,  the  battleships,  the 
banks  and  boulevards,  the  wide-extended  fields  and 
orchards  and  gardens,  and  all  the  other  facts  and  material 
achievements  which  make  up  at  least  the  external  forms  of 
civilization  !  Think  of  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  among 
the  greatest  monuments  of  the  past !  Think  of  the  Chris- 
tian missionary  and  educational  forces,  with  their  schools, 
dispensaries,    churches,  printing-presses,  vernacular  litera- 


HOME   COMING.  465 

tures,  and  all  their  wide-reaching  plans  for  the  conquest  of  a 
continent,  though  the  campaign  may  last  a  thousand  years  ! 
Think  of  the  love,  hope,  energy,  patience,  self-sacrifice, 
faith,  and  far-reaching  wisdom  which,  notwithstanding  all 
the  weaknesses,  sins,  and  pathetic  sufferings  of  earth's 
millions,  characterize  so  much  of  human  life  !  Through 
Christianity  and  its  conquests  the  law  of  progress  has 
become  the  law  of  the  race.  Men  are  brothers,  and  are 
coming  to  believe  it.  God's  fatherhood  is  the  sky  over- 
arching all,  and  men  are  coming  to  see  it.  The  race  is  not 
doomed.  Each  new  day  is  the  best  day  of  history.  The 
eyes  of  men  are  more  and  more  turned  to  the  teaching  and 
person  and  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  twentieth  cen- 
tury will  be  more  Christian  than  the  nineteenth.  Through 
wars,  upheavals,  disasters,  and  temporary  reverses,  the 
moral  elements  are  coming  to  the  front.  Religion  is  yet  to 
exercise  a  far  more  humanizing  and  unifying  influence  over 
discordant  peoples.  May  those  who  a  few  years  hence  in 
the  French  Capital  may  meet  together  as  worshippers  of 
God  and  lovers  of  men,  be  given  courage  and  wisdom  to 
speak  forth  boldly  for  all  the  highest  things  of  the  spirit 
which  make  for  peace,  purity,  mutual  trust,  expanding 
knowledge,  and  broad  and  cosmopolitan  sympathy  !  May 
God  give  a  multitude  of  men  a  world-embracing  charity 
and  a  world-conquering  faith  !  Then  the  divine  event 
toward  which  creation  moves,  may  not  be  so  far  off.  Then 
nations  may  abandon  the  infamy  of  war,  and  the  whole 
round  world,  which  Faith  now  sees  bound  securely  to  the 
loving  feet  of  God,  may  enter  upon  an  age  of  brotherhood 
and  of  peace. 

It  is  the  sea  which  marries  the  continents,  and  as  with 
thoughts  of  the  sea  my  journey  began,  so  with  dreams  of  the 
sea  these  records  end.  Here  in  the  heart  of  America,  on 
this  green  isle,  round  which  once  swarmed  the  painted 
canoes  of  savages  and  the  fur-laden  barks  of  voyageurs,  on 
this  restful  day  brimmed  with  sunshine,  memory,  love,  and 
imagination  carry  my  spirit  away  over  the  wide  and  ancient 

3° 


466  A    WORLD-PILGRIMAGE. 

main  around  whose  coasts  dwell  the  nations,  over  whose 
surface  by  all  the  watery  paths  a  thousand  steamers  are  now 
straining  shoreward,  —  the  sea  which  remains  man's  ever- 
lasting friend  and  his  best  symbol  of  eternity. 

"  Hence  in  a  season  of  calm  weather, 
Though  inland  far  we  be, 
Our  souls  have  sight  of  that  immortal  sea 
Which  brought  us  hither, 
Can  in  a  moment  travel  thither, 
And  see  the  children  sport  upon  the  shore 
And  hear  the  mighty  waters  roaring  evermore." 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


Abydos,  238. 

Acropolis,  232-233,  236. 

Acrostic  Sonnet,  408. 

Adams,  Samuel,  32. 

Aden,  320,  321. 

Adolphus,  Gustavus,  136,  138. 

Adyar,  403. 

Agra,  3S3-38S  ;  fort,  385  ;  Taj  Mahal, 
385-388. 

Ahmednagar,  394  ;  missions  in,  394, 
395  !  baptism  in,  395. 

Ajmere,  391. 

Akbar,  Mogul  Emperor,  370,  383 ; 
Congress,  383  ;  tomb,  384. 

Albani  Kirche,  29,  44. 

Alexandria,  279-281;  influences  from, 
280  ;  Greek  patriarch  of,  312-313. 

Allahabad,  327. 

Amber,  390-391. 

Ameer  Ali,  Honorable  Justice,  con- 
versation  with,    345 ;    decision    of, 

356. 

America,  ignorance  about,  105-106. 

American,  athletics,  105  ;  baseball, 
106;  breakfast,  37;  celebration  of 
Fourth  of  July,  103-109;  children 
educated  abroad,  95  ;  citizen,  first 
interest  of,  36 ;  college  and  university 
contrasted  with  German  university, 
86-88,  92 ;  colony  of  Gottingen, 
40,  41,  103,  104,  162 ;  eagle,  107 ; 
do.,  story  of,  108;  election,  247; 
fleet,  247 ;  football,  90 ;  interest 
in  Wilhelmshohe,  102 ;  literature 
known  by  French  ladies,  58  ;  patri- 


otism abroad,  105  ;  popular  tunes, 
106;  soldiers,  105  ;  stories,  58  ;  stu- 
dent, 86,  87  ;  teeth,  37  ;  travellers 
in  Europe,  41  ;  women  on  bicy- 
cles, 43. 

America's,  influence  in  Missions,  462- 
463  ;  place,  63. 

Americans,  at  German  Universities, 
92,  95  ;  at  Saratoga  and  Newport, 
119;  duty,  108;  lacking  in  culture, 
115 ;  living  abroad,  97 ;  politics, 
115;  popular  in  Gottingen,  39;  re- 
garded as  oddities,  40. 

Amritsar,  381-382. 

Amsterdam,  33. 

Angelo,  Michael,  211-212  ;  "  Fettered 
Slaves  "  of,  60. 

Areopagus,  234. 

Armenia,  55. 

Armenian,  meeting,  178,  179;  Patri- 
arch, 274. 

Arminius,  33. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  26. 

Art,  Dutch,  97,  99. 

Ashitsu,  Reverend  Zitsusen,  visit  to, 
451-452. 

Asia,  conquests  of  Gospel  in,  54. 

Asoka,  pillar  of,  328. 

Assyut,  college  at,  307. 

Athens,  227-237;  Acropolis,  232-236; 
national  museum,  230  ;  Parthenon, 
233 ;  picturesque  scenes,  229. 

Athletics  in  German  universities,  91. 

Atlantic  modern  steamship,  11. 

Augusta,  Empress,  154. 

Aurangzeb,  Mogul  Emperor,  328 ; 
mosque  of,  328-329. 


470 


INDEX. 


B. 


Bach,  Sebastian,  Passion  music,  126; 
statue,  126. 

Bancroft,  27,  31. 

Bangalore,  39S  ;  reception  in,  39S-399. 

Banurji,  K.  C,  352-353. 

Baron  de  Schickler,  38,  70,  72. 

Barton,  Clara,  244. 

Bebra,  126. 

Beirut,  Dr.  Van  Dyck  of,  311. 

Beisskatze,  116. 

Benares,  bathers  in,  333-334  ;  bathing 
Ghats,  331  ;  Buddha  in,  340  ;  burn- 
ing Ghats,  334 ;  busy  days  in,  331  ; 
college  of,  336 ;  cow  temple,  335  ; 
golden  temple,  335  ;  holy  man  of, 
340;  journey  to,  328-341;  London 
Mission,  329  ;  monkey  temple,  335  ; 
opium  of,  433;  Queen's  College, 
33S;  scenes  in,  339;  second  saint 
in,  337;  Well  of  Knowledge,  339. 

Beraud's  "  La  Pousse,"  65,  66. 

Berkshires,  no. 

Berlin,  cabs,  151  ;  compared  with 
Chicago,  1 48;  exposition,  152;  gal- 
leries, 153-154;  great  names  of, 
150;  Hasenheide,  151;  Hohenzol- 
lern  Museum,  153;  Kunstaustel- 
lung,  152,  153;  Old  Palace,  154; 
omnipresent  soldier,  149  ;  Parlia- 
ment House,  151;  police,  148;  Se- 
dan Day,  149;  streets,  150,  151; 
synagogue,  154;  taxometer,  151; 
University,  150;  Unter  den  Lin- 
den, 149. 

Berthelot,  M.,  67,  68. 

Bethany,  266,  267. 

Bethlehem,  275-27S. 

Bicycles,  43. 

Bismarck,  at  Gottingen,   28 ;    limita- 
tions, 166;  speech  in  the  Reichstag, 
120;    to    future    generations,    34; 
tower,  28,  33. 
Bliss,  Dr.,  excavations  of,  273. 
Blois,  75— Si. 
Bodethal,  118. 
Boettiger,  145. 

Bombay,  American  Mission  in,  324- 
325;  garlands  in,  324;  plague  in, 
324 ;  reception  in,  325 ;  Victoria 
Station,  325,  326;  welcome  at,  324. 


Bonet-Maury,  Professor  G.,  51,  73. 

Bourgeois,  M.,  57. 

Bose,  Miss,  353. 

Bosporus,  239. 

Boston,  library,  frescos  for,  56;  Oc- 
tet, 137 ;  Old  State  House  of,  33  ; 
walk  across  the  Common,  30. 

Bourget,  Paul,  69. 

Brahman,  converted,  330. 

Bremen,  21,  22,  31,  163;  Rathskel- 
ler, 163. 

Bremerhaven,  19,  21,  98. 

Bremke,  103. 

Bremker  Thai,  104,  106. 

British  Medical  Jewish  Mission,  274. 

Brocken,  1 19-123. 

Browning,  98 ;  Elizabeth,  205 ;  Hall, 
180,  1S1. 

Brunetiere,  67. 

Brusttuch,  115. 

Bryan,  114. 

Bryce,  Professor  James,  19,  114. 

Buddha  in  Benares,  340. 

Buddhism,  High  Priest  of,  428. 

Buddhism  in  Darjeeling,  365. 

Burdett-Coutts,  Baroness,  68,  69. 

Burgberg,  120. 

Burger,  93. 

Burg  Grona,  31,  33,  88. 

Byron,  229,  232,  238. 


Cable,  George  W.,  58. 

Caesar,  Julius,  17. 

Caine,  W.  S.,  329,  334,  397, 

Cairo,  282-286,  299-315  ;  Greek  Ba- 
silica, 305 ;  howling  dervishes,  302  ; 
Moslem  University,  302-305  ;  street 
pictures,  300. 

Calame,  139. 

Calcutta,  Beadon  Square,  355  ;  begin- 
nings of,  342 ;  Bethune  College  for 
women,  344,  353,  354  i  Black  Hole 
of,  347  ;  enlargement  of,  343  ;  im- 
pression regarding  Lectureship,  349 ; 
Jain  temples,  347  ;  Kali  Ghat,  347  ; 
kindnesses  received  in,  348-349; 
Principal  Morrison  of,  347,  351 ; 
reception  by  Missionary  Conference 
of,   338;  reception  in,  344;    recep- 


INDEX. 


471 


tion,  Maharajah's,  349-351 ;  scenes 
in,  346-347;   St.  Andrew's  Church, 

359- 

Cambridge,  1S5-187. 

Canning,  George,  107. 

Canossa,  120. 

Canterbury,  Cathedral  of,  1S7. 

Cantonments,  English,  370. 

Capri,  220. 

Carlyle,  154. 

Carnot,  Hall  of,  56. 

Carpenter,  J.  Estlin,  181,  182,  185. 

Cascades  at  Wilhelmshohe,  101. 

Cassel,  97-103. 

Catherine  de  Medicis,  80-81. 

Catholic  Church  in  Italy,  216. 

Cawnpore,  juggler  in,  36S;  massacre 
at,  367-368  ;  memorial  church,  368. 

Cecil,  Hotel,  177. 

Cenchrea,  226. 

"  Cephalonia,"  223-224. 

Ceylon,  417-430. 

Chamberlain,  Dr.  Jacob,  399. 

Chambord,  7S,  79. 

Charbonnel,  Abbe,  73. 

Charlemagne,  29,  34,  54. 

Charles  V.,  78,  82. 

Charlottenburg,  154. 

Chartres,  191-197;  Black  Virgin  of, 
192  ;  pilgrims  to,  193. 

Charybdis,  223. 

Chatterjea,  B.  L.,  353. 

Cherith  brook,  268. 

Chicago,  22,  41 ;  compared  with  Ber- 
lin, 14S-150;  University,  150. 

China,  coasts  of,  431-441 ;  native  pop- 
ulation  of,   433;    opium    traffic   of, 

436- 
"China,"  steamship,  456. 

Chinese  representative,  62. 

"Christ  in  the  Temple,"  144;  and  the 

"  rich  young  ruler,"  144. 
Christian    Endeavor,  conventions    of, 

47 !  meeting,  377. 
Christian  Literature  Society,  425. 
Church  of  the  Nativity,  276. 
Clark,  Dr.  Francis  E.,  191,  370,  373, 

377,  4°4- 
Clausthal,  113. 
Clough,  Arthur  H.,  205. 
Coimbatore,  409. 
Coleridge,  27,  no,  112 


Coligni,  54. 

Cologne  Cathedral,  49-50,  58. 

Colombo,     418-419;    lectures,     427; 

missionary  conference  of,  423. 
Columbian  Exposition,  49. 
Comparative  Theology,  study  of,  427. 
Constantinople,    239-244 ;   massacres, 

241 ;  picturesque  scenes,  240. 
Cook,  Joseph,  39S. 
Cook,  Thomas,  222,  315. 
Coolies,  Chinese,  437. 
Coptic  University,  310. 
Corinth  Canal,  225-226. 
Cotta,  Frau  Ursula,  131. 
Cranach,  Lucas,  130,  133. 
Croiset,  Professor,  56. 
Cromer,  Lord,  312. 
Crusaders,  263. 
Cuba,  107. 

Custom  House,  German,  21. 
Cyril,  Patriarch,  310. 


D. 

Dagnan-Bouveret's    "  Last  Supper," 

65. 
Dardanelles,  238. 
Darjeeling,  362-365. 
David's  Tomb,  271. 
Dead  Sea,  269. 
Deal,  17. 
Declaration    of    Independence,     103, 

104. 
Decorations  during  journey,  254. 
Delhi,  370-375  ;  Asoka's  pillar,  374; 

Jumna  Musjid,  371,  373;  Kohinoor, 

372;  Kutub  Minar,  374~375?  Pearl 

Mosque,  371. 
Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  58. 
Deschamps,  Louis,  66. 
Desjardins,  Arthur,  61,  62. 
Dharmapala,  6S,  182,  183,  219;  home 

of,  428. 
Douy,  Gerard,  99. 
Dover,  174. 
Doyle,  Conan,  82. 
Dresden,  139-146;  Bruhl  Terrace,  140; 

gallery,  142-143 ;  Green  Vaults,  141 ; 

opera,   140;    pension,    139;   Sistine 

Madonna,  140,  141, 142,  143  ;  tram- 


472 


INDEX. 


way  system,  140;  ware,  145;  Zwinger, 
142. 
Duelling  in  German  universities,  88- 
90. 


Easter  bonfires,  34. 

Eddy,  Clarence,  82. 

Eddystone,  17. 

Education  of  American  children 
abroad,  95. 

Egypt,  279-316 ;  compared  with  Pal- 
estine, 2S2  ;  flies  in,  301  ;  Khedive, 
312;  Patriarch  of,  310;  weather  of, 

3i4- 

Egyptian  railway  stations,  231. 

Eisenach,  126-131. 

El  Aksa,  262,  264. 

Elbe,  33. 

Eleusis,  22S,  230,  231. 

Elisha's  Fountain,  270,  271. 

Ely,  Cathedral  of,  1S7. 

Emerson,  27,  58,  103. 

Emperor  of  Germany,  54,  101,  127. 

Empress  Josephine,  52,  82. 

England,  174-189;  first  sight  of,  17. 

England's  Asiatic  policy,  436. 

England's  love  to  America,  18,  19. 

English,  advantage  in  educating  chil- 
dren abroad,  95;  novelties  in  the 
Salon  catalogue,  64,  65. 

Ephesus,  248. 

Equatorial  heat,  430. 

Erfurt,  132. 

Europe,  an  armed  camp,  53,  197; 
war  in,  54. 

Es  Seyd  El-Bakri,  314. 

Everett,  27,  31. 

Ewald,  93. 

Ewing,  Dr.  J.  C.  R.,  376,  378. 


Fairbairn,  Principal,  182. 

Famine  in  India,  326. 

Farrar,  Dean,  187,  188. 

Fichte,  138. 

Florence,  art  galleries,  205-209 ;  cathe- 
dral, 206  ;  churches,  208  ;  graves, 
205  ;  journey  to,  203. 


Fontanes,  Reverend  Ernest,  68,  74. 
Football  versus  duelling,  90. 
Foreman  College,  spirit  of,  379,  380. 
Foreman,  Dr.,  378-379. 
Fourth  of  July  in  Gottingen,  103-109. 
France,  a   little  tour  in,  75-83 ;  Insti- 
tute of,  60  ;  University  of,  55,  57. 
Francis  I.,  7S,  So. 
Franco-Scottish  Society,  meeting  of, 

55,  56,57- 
Frankfort,  31,  39. 

Frederick,  Barbarossa,  118,  128,  129; 
Second,  98;  the  Great,  154;  the 
Wise,  130;  William  III,  154. 

Fremantle,  Dean,  185. 

French,  army,  53  ;  knowledge  of  Amer- 
ican literature,  58;  martial  airs,  57; 
outdoor  enjoyment,  52  ;  renaissance, 
80  ;  revolution,  78  ;  school  system, 
53  ;  students,  company  of,  63. 

Fujiyama,  454-455- 

Fulda,  98. 

Fuller,  Henry  B.,  41. 


Galata  Bridge,  239. 

Ganges,  bathing  in,  332  ;  beggars  of, 
334 ;  pilgrims  to,  328. 

Geismar,  Thor,  29. 

George  III.,  98. 

Georgia,  Augusta  University,  93. 

Gerhardt,  Paul,  hymn  by,  45. 

German,  advantages  for  Americans, 
95  ;  Americans,  20 ;  beds,  38  ;  bills, 
1 60-1 6 1  ;  capital,  14S-155  ;  care  of 
forest  land,  in;  church  life,  171; 
classics,  137;  concert  garden,  40; 
custom  house,  21  ;  deference  to  offi- 
cial rank,  39 ;  distaste  for  agitation, 
167  ;  duelling  customs,  88  ;  empire, 
118;  do.,  Bismarck  chief  builder 
of,  28;  emperor,  54,  127;  empress, 
170;  faith,  117;  food,  37-38;  gym- 
nasium, 86;  hymns,  45,  47;  igno- 
rance of  America,  105-106;  Ka- 
nonenschlager,  106;  language,  159- 
160 ;  life,  first  impressions  of,  36- 
48  ;  do.,  picturesqueness  of,  42 ; 
meals,  37,  38 ;  men  superior  beings, 
43  ;  paternal  government,  165  ;  peas- 


INDEX. 


473 


ant  women,  38;  preaching,  172; 
professor,  92,  93,  95,  96;  do., 
invincible  energy  of,  28-85  >  ra'l" 
ways,  125-126;  schools,  29;  scep- 
tical scholarship,  95  ;  servants,  20, 
38  ;  service,  3S  ;  soldiers,  29,  41,  42, 
46 ;  stoves,  38  ;  student  compared 
with  American,  92  ;  students,  86,  87  ; 
trains,  21;  treatment  of  Heine,  113; 
universities,  84-96  ;  use  of  dogs,  43  ; 
virtue  of  cleanliness,  37 ;  women, 
38,  169-171. 

Germans,  curiosity  of,  43 ;  economy 
of,  39  ;  national  beverage  of,  41  ;  po- 
liteness of,  42  ;  scarred  faces,  42  ; 
sentimentalism  of,  16 ;  street  cus- 
toms of,  42,  43. 

Germany,  America's  teacher,  169 ;  a 
naval  power,  13 ;  government  of, 
95;  in  classic,  125-148;  political 
development  of,  168  ;  unification  of, 
50. 

Gervinus,  93. 

Ghizeh  Museum,  2S3-285. 

Goethe,  112,  122,  133,  135,  136,  137; 
busts,  135  ;  "  Hermann  and  Doro- 
thea," 138  ;  homes,  134-137  ;  room, 

l33- 

Gordon,  General,  258. 

Goshen,  land  of,  316. 

Goslar,  11 3-1 18. 

Gottingen,  24-4S,  103-109,  156-163; 
Albani  Kirche,  29,  44  ;  auditorium 
of,  31  ;  besieged  by  Tilly,  98,  157; 
bicycles  in,  43  ;  Bismarck  at,  28  ; 
botanical  gardens,  29  ;  cafe  national 
of,  37  ;  Career,  156;  dailies  of,  37 ; 
early  history  of,  32  ;  Fourth  of  July 
celebration  in,  103-109;  great 
Americans  in,  27-28 ;  great  men 
of,  93-94  ;  Heine's  description  of, 
27  ;  horses  of,  39  ;  Jacobi  Kirche, 
32;  Johannis  Kirche,  32;  library, 
92, 159  ;  museum  of  antiquities,  156  ; 
music  in,  40;  neighboring  castles, 
157-15S;  Rathhaus  of,  33,42;  Re- 
formirte  Kirche  of,  44  ;  Stadt  Park 
of,  40,  41  ;  student  societies,  92  ;  the 
wall  of,  25  ;  University  of,  S4-96 ; 
valorous  burghers  of,  33. 

Grant  Bey,  Dr.,  299. 

Greek,  discussion  of,  56. 


Grimm,  Jacob,  93,  98. 
Grimm,  Wilhelm,  98. 
Guise,  Grand  Duke  of,  81. 

H. 

Hals,  Frans,  99. 

Hamelin,  98. 

Hanotaux,  M.,  67. 

Hanover,  31,37;  Province  of,  36 ;  Re- 
formed Church  of,  44. 

Hart,  J.  M.,  25. 

Hartz,  22,  28,  31,  32,  39;  canaries, 
121;  charm,  no;  club,  in;  moun- 
tains, 110-124;  poets,  112;  val- 
leys, 118. 

Harzburg,  118,  119. 

Haskell,  Mrs.,  359,  429. 

Havel,  12,  20,  154. 

Hawaiian  Islands,  457-458;  condi- 
tion of,  458. 

Hegel,  138. 

Heidelberg,  duelling  at,  88. 

Heine,  26,  27,  75,  112,  113,  115,  116, 
118,119,  123. 

"  Helen's  Babies,"  40. 

Henry  I.,  25. 

Henry  III.,  81. 

Henry  IV.,  117,  120. 

Henry  of  Navarre,  80. 

Hercules,  Farnese,  101,  102. 

Herder,  132;  room,  134. 

Hermann,  33. 

Hessen,  Elector  of,  101. 

Heyne,  Professor,  93. 

Higginson,  58. 

Hofmann,  143,  144. 

Holland,  19,  2S,  56. 

Holmes,  27. 

Holy  Fire,  259. 

Holy  Land,  fertility,  267;  first  sight 
of,  252. 

Holy  Roman  Empire,  33,  114. 

Hong   Kong,   435-439;  dampness  of, 

433- 
Honolulu,  457-458;  Christian  work  in. 

457- 
Hbrselberg,  130. 
Hosanna  Road,  266. 
Hotel  de  Ville  of  Paris,  63. 
Huguenot  Library,  -jo. 
Hume,  Robert  A.,  D,D.,  394. 


474 


INDEX. 


I. 


Ilsenburg,  113,  118. 

Ilsethal,   123. 

Immortality,  Egyptian  belief  in,  298. 

Impressionists  in  Paris  salons,  66. 

India,  323-41S;  domestic  arrange- 
ments, 348;  famine,  first  sight  of, 
326,  372-373;  farewell  to,  417-418; 
first  view  of,  323  ;  missions  in,  352 ; 
picturesque  colors  in,  327  ;  railways, 
375-376;  servants,  325;  temple 
immoralities,  354. 

India  Lectureship,  73;  in  Calcutta, 
349;  in  Colombo,  427;  in  Lahore, 
381;  in  Madras,  406-407;  value  of, 
423-425. 

Indian,  National  congress,  344,  345, 
346;  people's  grievances,  346. 

Indore,  391-394;  Canadian  Presby- 
terian Mission,  392;  elephant  ride 
in,  393;  Maharajah  of,  393;  opium 
trade  in,  392. 

Inland  Sea,  441. 

Inouye,  Count,  453-454. 

Ireland,  Archbishop,  69. 

Isle,  Princess,  story  of,  123. 

Ismailiya,  316. 

Italy,  198-223;  beggars  of,  222;  en- 
trance to,  200;  great  men  of,  199; 
importance  of,  198;  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  in,  216. 


Jacob     blessing      the      children     of 

Joseph,  100. 
Jacobi  Kirche,  32. 
James  II.,  tomb  of,  52. 
James,  Henry,  75,  76. 
Japan,    441-455 ;    Joseph    Cook    in, 

444 ;     passports     in,      445 ;     "  So- 

dan,"  445. 
Japanese  representatives,  62. 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  57,  81. 
Jena,  39,  133, 137;  battlefield  of,  138  ; 

duelling  at,  88;  great  men  of,  138. 
Jericho,  266,  268. 
Jerusalem,    252-262  ;    changes,    254 ; 

Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  256, 


260 ;  Dome  of  the  Rock,  263,  264; 
excavations,  265  ;  girls'  school,  261 ; 
increase  in  population,  254 ;  Jewish 
temples,  262 ;  missionary  work  in, 
255  ;  money,  256 ;  New  Calvary, 
258;  spurious  relics,  260;  street 
scenes,  256-257  ;  Via  Dolorosa,  260. 

Jerusalem  Chamber,  180. 

Jews'  wailing-place,  271-272. 

Jeypore,  389-391  ;  description  of,  389; 
Hall  of  Winds,  390 ;  prime  minister 
of,  389. 

Jinrikishas,  447. 

Johannis  Kirche,  32. 

John  the  Baptist's  birthplace,  273. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  18,  in. 

Jones,  J.  P.,  D.D.,  414. 

Joppa,  252. 

Jordaens,  99. 

Jordan,  fords  of,  270. 

Jowett,  Professor,  185. 


K. 


Kaaba,  the,  319. 

Kahn,  Zadoc,  58,  72. 

Kamakura,  454. 

Kandy,    Buddhist    temple    of,    420 ; 

journey  to,  41S-420. 
Keats,  214. 
Khedive,  314. 
Kinchinjunga,  364. 
Kingsley  against  Newman,  183. 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  445. 
Klein,  Abbe  Felix,  69. 
Klein,  Professor,  93. 
Kobe,    442-447;    Daibutsu    of,    443; 

lecture  in,  443. 
Kuch  Behar,  Maharani  of,  357. 
Kultus  minister,  30,  84. 
Kyoto,  44S-451;  cherry  blossoms  of, 

451;    cloisonne  of,   450;    Daibutsu 

of,   450 ;  new  Buddhist   temple  in, 

450. 


Lahore,    376-3S1 ;    boys'    school    in, 
3S0;  lecture  in,  381. 


INDEX. 


475 


Landor,  Walter  S.,  205. 

Larned,  Walter,  79. 

Leine,  28,  32,  33. 

Leipsic,  battle,  138;  book  trade,  138; 
buildings,  13S. 

Leonardo  de  Vinci,  202-203. 

Leroy-Beaulieu,  61,  71,  73. 

Lewis  the  Springer,  126. 

Leyden,  33. 

Lily  Cottage,  357,  358. 

Liszt,  129,  134. 

Lodiana,  376,  377. 

"  Lohengrin,"  first  heard,  134. 

Loire,  77. 

London,  176-1S1;  lodgings,  177;  na- 
tional portrait  gallery,  179;  omni- 
buses, 176,  177. 

Longfellow,  27. 

Lotze,  28. 

Louis  XII.,  79,  80. 

Louis  XIV.,  78. 

Louise,  Queen,  154. 

Louvre,  55,  60. 

Lowell,  19,  27,  111;  "Cathedral," 
49,  191,  197. 

Lucknow,  residency,  366;  siege  of,  367. 

Luther,  Martin,  126,  137,  146;  as 
Junker  Georg,  130,  131 ;  "  Ein'  feste 
Burg,"  127;  house,  147;  monument, 
131 ;  room,  129. 

Lydda,  252. 


M. 

Macdonald,  Reverend  Dr.,  341,  355; 
address  of,  351. 

Mackenzie,  Sir  Alexander,  conversa- 
tion with,  344. 

Mackichan,  Principal,  396. 

Mackinac  Island,  121,  459. 

Madonna  in  Louvre,  60. 

Madras,  Hindu  chairman  in,  405-406; 
printing  lectures  in,  406;  reception 
in,  405,407;  religious  procession  in, 
404;  welcome  to,  402,  403-407. 

Madura,  414-416;  garlands  of,  414. 

Magenta,  battlefield,  201. 

Mahmudiyeh  Canal,  280. 

Malabar  coast,  410;  fashions  of,  413, 
414. 


Malmaison,  52. 

Mansard,  80. 

Mareotis  Lake,  2S1. 

Mariette  Bay,  296,  297. 

Marina,  403. 

Marutee,  farewell  to,  428,  429. 

McAll  Mission,  54. 

McKinley,  114,  247,  248. 

Meaux,  Vicomte  de,  52,  71. 

Mediterranean,  223-224. 

Meissen,  144;  Schloss,  144. 

Melanchthon,  133,  146. 

Memphis,  293,  294. 

Mera,  tomb  of,  294. 

Mesolonghi,  224. 

Messageries  steamers,  passengers  on, 
321,  322. 

Mexican  sailors,  10S. 

"  Midnight  Sun,"  departure  from,  220, 
279. 

Milan,  Cathedral  of,  201-202 ;  art 
gallery,  203. 

Miller,  Dr.  William,  407. 

Millet,  76. 

Minnesingers,  126,  129,  131. 

Missions,  American,  in  Bombay,  324- 
325;  do.,  in  Cairo,  306-309 ;  Arcot, 
399;  Ben  Oliel,  274;  British  Medical, 
Jewish,  274;  Canadian  Presbyterian 
in  Indore,  392;  Christian  impor- 
tance of,  426-427;  Church,  in  Tin- 
nevelly,  415;  in  Ahmednagar,  394- 
395;  in  India,  352;  in  Jerusalem, 
255;  London,  Benares,  329;  Pasa- 
mulai  American,  415;  Presbyterian, 
in  Lodiana,  376-377. 

Mohammed,  264. 

Mohammed  Ali,  280. 

Mohammedanism,  birthplace  of,  318; 
Turkish,  243. 

Moliere's,  "  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme," 
78. 

Mont  Cenis  tunnel,  198. 

Montefiore,  Sir  Moses,  255. 

Moriah,  Mount,  262. 

Moslem  University  in  Cairo,  303-305. 

Motley,  25,  28,  29. 

Mott,  John  R.,  449. 

Mozoomdar,  P.   C,  341,  357;  Mrs., 

354,  357- 
Miiller,   Professor    F.   Max,   61,    1S1, 

1S2,  183,  184,  185. 


476 


INDEX. 


Miiller,  Wilhelm,  184. 
Miinden,  98. 
Musee  Guimet,  70. 
Music  at  sea,  12,  13. 


N. 

Nagoya,  452. 

Nantes,  jy. 

Naples,  21S-220 ;   aquarium  of,   218- 

219;  journey  thither,  218  ;  wedding 

of  Prince  of,  214-216. 
Napoleon,  54,  64,  79,  98,  99,  113,  114, 

136,  13s.  139. 
Napoleonic  wars,  129. 
Napoleon  III.,  101,  102. 
Nara,  450. 

Nawara  Eliya,  423,  427. 
"Natal,"  319. 
Naval  battles,  224. 
Nernst,  Professor,  86. 
Newman,  controversy  with  Kingsley, 

183. 
Nicolausberg,  Church  of,  34. 
Nile,  290-294;   compared  with  other 

rivers,    291-292  ;    Moses   on,   291  ; 

uniqueness  of,  292-293. 
Nilometer,  290. 

North  German  Lloyd  Line,  12,  16. 
Notre  Dame,  63. 
Nouri,  Prince,  299-300,  410. 
Nuremberg,  129. 


O. 

Oken,  138. 

Oker,  119. 

Okerthal,  118. 

Olcott,  Colonel,  speech,  408-409. 

Old  World,  30. 

Olympic  games,  232. 

Omar  Mosque,  262,  263. 

Orleans,  76. 

Orth,  Professor,  88. 

Osaka,  446;  prison  in,  448;  reception 

at,  447. 
Ostade,  99. 
Osterode,  113. 
Otho  the  Great,  31. 
Oxford,  26,  181-185. 


P. 

Pacific,  voyage  on,  456. 

Papin,  Denis,  79. 

Paris,  49-74,  82-83  ;  American  Chapel 
in,  69;  Americans  who  loll  about, 
97;  beauty  of,  51;  Czar's  visit  to, 
190 ;  decorations  of,  190 ;  disfig- 
urement of,  51;  English  signs  in, 
53 ;  Exposition  of,  in  1900,  52 ; 
Hotel  de  Ville,  63,  80;  Huguenot 
Library,  70 ;  is  not  France,  75 ; 
memories  of,  54 ;  more  cosmopoli- 
tan, 53;  more  expensive,  53  ;  Musee 
Guimet,  70;  Notre  Dame,  63;  Pa- 
lais de  1' Industrie,  63;  religious 
condition  of,  52  ;  Salons  of,  63-68. 

Parisian  banquet,  56. 

Parker,  Theodore,  205. 

Parthenon,  233. 

Pasamulai,  Mission  at,  415. 

Passy,  Frederick,  59,  61,  71. 

Patmos,  Isle  of,  249. 

Peace  Cottage,  356. 

Peck's  Bad  Boy,  40. 

Pentecost,  George  F.,  180. 

Peradeniya,  botanical  gardens  of,  421- 
422. 

Petrarch,  220. 

Physical  chemistry  laboratory,  84. 

Picot,  George,  61,  71. 

Pillar,  Asoka's,  328. 

Pincian  Hill,  216-217. 

Piraeus,  227. 

Pittindrigh,  Reverend  George,  405. 

Planchon,  73. 

Plato's  retirement,  228. 

Piatt  Deutsch,  32. 

Plesse,  26,  157,  158. 

Poe,  Edgar  A.,  58. 

Pompeii,  221,  222. 

Pompey's  Pillar,  280. 

Poona,  395-398;  disturbance  in,  397; 
Joseph   Cook  in,  398 ;    plague  in, 

396. 
Port   Said  and   Bombay  experiences, 

3l7,  32°- 
Portsmouth,  17. 
Potsdam,  154,  155. 
Potter,  Paul,  99. 
Preller,  132. 
Prohibition  in  Iowa,  82. 


INDEX. 


477 


Protestant  Church,  bareness  of,  44. 

Prussia,  Reform  Church  of,  44. 

Prussian  poverty,  153. 

Puaux,  Frank,  73. 

Punkas,  first  experiences  of,  319. 

Puritan  discipline,  87. 

Puritanism,  172,  173. 

Puvis  de  Chavannes,  55,  65. 

Pyramids,  2S5-289;   of  Sakkara,  297; 

symbolic  of,  2S9. 
Python,  316. 


R. 


Rachel's  tomb,  275. 

Railways,    French   and   Belgian,  50; 

German,    125,     126;     Indian,    375, 

376. 
Ramses  II.,  study  of,  290,  294. 
Ravaisson-Mollieu,  M.,  61. 
Reay,  Lord,  56,  57. 
Red  Sea,  crossing  of,  317,  318,  319. 
Reformed  Church,  of  Gottingen,  44; 

of  Hanover,  44;  of  Prussia,  44;  ser- 
vice of,  45. 
Reinach,  58,  71,  74. 
Religions,   Congress  in   1900,  71,  74, 

82;    museum    of,    71;    Parliament 

of,  72. 
Religious  condition  of  France,  52. 
Rembrandt,    99;  his   autobiographies 

and  other   portraits,  99;    works  in 

Dresden,  143. 
Reville,    Professor     Albert,    5S,     71, 

73- 
Rheinhausen,  104. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  portrait  of,  61, 
67,  68. 

Ritschl,  93,  159. 

Robert  College,  242. 

Roberty,  Reverend  Mr.,  74. 

Roda,  Island  of,  290,  291. 

Roentgen,  discovery  of,  37. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  69. 

Romans,  Epistle  to,  226. 

Rome,  210-218;  and  the  Apostles, 
217;  changes  in,  212;  churches  in, 
213;  excavations  in,  212;  graves 
in,  213,  214;  pictures  of,  210,  211. 

Rubens,  99. 

Ruysdael,  99. 


s. 

Saigon,  431-433. 

Salamis,  231. 

Salem,  409. 

Salon,  of  the  Champs  Elys£es,  63,  64 ; 

de   Mars,   64,  68;    specimens  from 

its  catalogue,  64. 
San  Francisco,  458. 
Sans  Souci,  155. 
Sarah  Tucker  College,  415. 
Sarnath,  340. 
Saskia,  portrait,  100. 
Savonarola,  209. 
Saxe,  Marechal,  78. 
Saxons,  customs  of,  34;  maidens,  36. 
Saxony,   141;  and  Poland,  141;  king 

of,  character,  140,  141. 
Say,  Leon,  82. 
Schelling,  138. 
Schiller,     134-137;     bones    of,     136; 

house    of,     135,     13S;    hymn     to 

Joy,  138. 
Schopenhauer,  28. 
Schopenhauer,  Johanna,  134. 
Schultz,  Professor,  94. 
Schurer,  Professor,  93. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  m. 
Scudder,  Henry  Martin,  399. 
Scutari,  243. 
Scylla,  223. 
Sea,  epithets  applied  to,  14;  hymn  to, 

14;  restful,  14;  inconstant,   15,  16. 
Sedan,  101. 

Sen,  Keshub  Chunder,  48,  358. 
Seraphim,  298. 
Shah   Jehan,  tomb  of,  371-372,  383, 

387- 
Shakespeare,  51. 

Shanghai,  439-440. 

Sharon,  Plain  of,  252. 

Shelley,  213-214. 

Siliguri,  362. 

Silver  party,  248. 

Simon,    Jules,    address   of,    56;    call 

upon,  82-83. 
Sinai,  Mount,  318. 
Singapore,  429,  430. 
Sistine  Madonna,  142. 
Siva,  worship  of,  333. 
Slater,  Reverend  T.  E.,  399. 
Small,  Reverend  John,  395. 


478 


INDEX. 


Smyrna,  245-248. 

Sophronios,  Patriarch,  312-313. 

Sorbonne,  55. 

Southampton,  174. 

Southern  India,  fertility  of,  401. 

Spina  Christi,  270. 

Stadt  Park  of  Gottingen,  40-41. 

Stamboul,   240. 

Stanislaus,  king  of  Poland,  j8. 

Stanley,  Dean,  183. 

St.    Bartholomew,   night   of,    54,    55, 

81. 
St.  Bonifacius,  29. 
Stead,    Reverend    F.    Herbert,    1S0, 

181. 
Stead,  William  T.,  19. 
Steinberg,  117. 
Stein,  Frau,  135. 
St.  Elizabeth,  126,  128,  131. 
St.  Germain,  51. 
St.  Jerome,  277. 
Stowe,  Mrs.,  58. 
St.  Paul  at  Mars  Hill,  234,  235. 
Strauss,   152. 
St.  Sophia  Church,  240. 
St.  Thomas,  birthplace  of,  403. 
Suez  Canal,  316,  317  ;  town  of,  317. 
Sultan,  character    of,    241  ;    motives 

of,  242-243. 
Sunday,  keeping   of,   in  Europe  and 

America,  52. 


Taj  Mahal,  385-388. 

Tannhauser,  129, 130,  134, 140,  152. 

Tasso,  79. 

Tel-el-kebir,  316. 

Teniers,  99. 

Thirty  years'  war,  33,  46,  97,  98. 

Thurber,  Dr.,  70,  191. 

Thuringian  Forest,  126. 

Ti,  tomb  of,  295,  296. 

Tilly,  33,  98,  157. 

Tinnevelly,  415-446. 

Tokyo,  reception  in,  453. 

Tours,  "jy. 

Trains,  German,  22. 

"Trave,"  163. 

Treaty  Point,  453. 


Trichur,  cathedral  in,  411-412;  drive 
to,  410;  lecture  in,  413;  reception 
in,  411. 

Triplicane,  403. 

Turin,  study  of,  200. 

Turkey,  apologists  for,  249,  250;  mail 
in,  244;  massacres  in,  250-251. 

Turkish  fortifications,  245. 


U. 


University,  buildings,  26  ;  German, 
84-96;  advantage  for  Americans, 
95  ;  opening  of,  24 ;  of  Berlin,  85 ; 
of  Cairo  (Moslem),  303-305;  of 
Chicago,  150;  of  France,  55,  57,  71, 
95- 


Van  Dyck,  99. 

Varnishing  day  at  the  Salon,  64-67. 

Vatican,  216. 

Vellore,  399-402;  Arcot  mission,  399; 

reception  in,  401. 
Vesuvius,  221. 
Via  Dolorosa,  260. 
Victoria  Peak,  435. 
Virgil,  220. 
Voltaire,  33,  51,  155. 


W. 

Walpurgisnacht,  122. 

Wartburg,  126-131. 

Water  spout,  174. 

Weber,  93. 

Weende,  30,  32,  112. 

Weender-strasse,  31,  41,  42. 

Weimar,  132;  of  theatre,  134;  library, 

135,  136;  Werther  restaurant,  134. 
Weimar,  Duke  of,  126,  127,  132. 
Wellhausen,  Professor,  93,  94. 
Werra,  98. 

Werther  restaurant,  134. 
Weser,  33,  17,98. 
Westminster  Abbey,  176,  179-180. 
Wherry,  Dr.  E.  M.,  376. 


INDEX. 


479 


Whittier,  27. 

Wieland  room,  134. 

Wight,  Isle  of,  17. 

Wilamowitz-Mollendorf,  Professor,  93. 

Wilhelmshohe  Park,  92,  101,  102. 

William  I.,  154. 

William  II.,  monument,  84. 

Windsor  Castle,  12S. 

Winthrop,  Governor,  116. 

Wittenberg,  146,  148. 

Wdhler,  93. 

Wonders   of  the   world,   ancient  and 

modern,  12. 
Wordsworth,  50,  112. 


World  pilgrimage,  reflections  on,  459, 

466. 
Wouverman,  99. 


"  Yang-tse,"  429 ;  the  river,  439. 
Yokohama,  453. 


Zante,  223,  224. 


3. 


RARE  BOOK 
COLLECTION 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT 

CHAPEL  HILL 

Travel 
G440 
.B27 
1898 


